Information processing apparatus for automatically recording video data from a first recording medium in a first format to a second recording medium in a second format

ABSTRACT

The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus and a program for executing a sequence of processing operations including the recording of video data recorded to a first recording medium in a first format to a second recording medium in a second format without user&#39;s manual intervention. If the information processing apparatus determines that the recording time of a frame just reproduced by a predetermined reproduction device is earlier than the recording time of a frame reproduced by said reproduction device immediately before the above-mentioned frame (step S 89 ) or an unrecorded area has been reproduced by the reproduction device for more than a predetermined period of time (step S 90 ), the information processing apparatus stops the acquisition of the data recorded to a digital video tape reproduced by the reproduction device (step S 92 ), thereby stopping the reproduction of the digital video tape (step S 93 ). The present invention is applicable to information processing apparatus for recording data from digital cassette video tape to DVD, for example.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates generally to an information processingapparatus and a program and, more particularly, to an informationprocessing apparatus and a program that are adapted to execute asequence of processing for recording video data recorded to a firstrecording medium in a first format to a second recording medium in asecond format without requiring the manual operation of a user.

BACKGROUND ART

The recent widespread use of personal computers (hereafter appropriatelyreferred to as PCs) and digital video tape recorders (hereafterappropriately referred to as DVs) allows users to capture the video datataken through their DVs into their PCs to record the video data to DVDs(Digital Versatile Discs).

Conventionally, however, capturing the video data taken through a DVinto a PC and authoring the captured video data (for example, recordingthe captured video data to a DVD) are separate processes, so thatrecording the video data taken with the DV requires the user to performcomplicated jobs and with a lot of time.

To be more specific, when recording the video data taken with the DV toa DVD, the user must manually start up an application software programfor capturing the video data of DV format from the DV into the PC (referto non-patent document 1) (this program hereafter referred to as a dataacquisition program) on the PC and perform operations (manualoperations) specified by the data acquisition program, thereby capturingthe video data from the DV into the PC, the captured video data beingstored in the hard disk drive for example in the PC in the DV format.

Next, the user manually starts up the data acquisition program and thenmanually starts up an application software program for recording thevideo data stored in the hard disk drive to a DVD (refer to non-patentdocument 2) (this application software program hereafter referred to asa DVD writing program) on the PC, performs operations (manualoperations) specified in the DVD writing program to convert the formatof the video data stored in the hard disk drive into DVD format, recordsthe video data of DVD format to a DVD, and, when this recording ends,manually exits the DVD writing program.

As described, when recording the video data taken with the DV to a DVDby use of the PC, the user must perform a complicated job involving aplurality of manual operations which require a lot of time.

[Non-patent document 1] “DVgate” products description, “online”, SonyDrive Home Page, “searched on Aug. 30, 2002”, Internetwww.sony.jp/products/Consumer/PCOM/Software_(—)02q2/DVgate/index.html

[Non-patent document 2] “Simple DVD Maker” products description,“online”, Sony Drive Home Page, description of “Simple DVD Maker”,“searched on Aug. 30, 2002”, Internet,www.sony.jp/products/Consumer/PCOM/Fun/DVD-RW

DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION

It is therefore an object of the present invention to allow theexecution of a sequence of processing operations for recording the videodata recorded to a first recording medium in a first format to a secondrecording medium in a second format without requiring user's manualoperations.

In carrying out the invention and according to one aspect thereof, thereis provided an information processing apparatus including: connectionmeans for connecting to a reproduction device for reproducing contentdata recorded in a first format; content data acquisition means foracquiring the content data reproduced by the reproduction deviceconnected to the connection means; conversion means for converting aformat of the content data acquired by the content data acquisitionmeans from the first format to a second format; recording control meansfor executing control such that the content data converted to the secondformat by the conversion means is recorded from the informationprocessing apparatus to a predetermined removable recording medium;detection means for detecting a signal supplied from the reproductiondevice indicative that the reproduction device is connected to theconnection means and reproduction of the content data by thereproduction device is ready; and processing control means for executingcontrol such that, if the signal is detected by the detection means,processing by the content data acquisition means, processing by theconversion means, and processing by the recording control means arecontinuously executed in this order.

The above-mentioned information processing apparatus further including:reproduction control means for controlling the reproduction of thecontent data by the reproduction device connected to the connectionmeans; and information acquisition means for acquiring time informationof the content data from the content data of which reproduction iscontrolled by the reproduction control means; wherein the content dataacquisition means acquires the control data of which reproduction iscontrolled by the reproduction control means; the recording controlmeans executes control so as to record the content data of the secondformat to the recording medium on the basis of the time information ofthe content data acquired by the information acquisition means; and theprocessing control means, if the signal is detected by the detectionmeans, executes control so as to execute the processing of theinformation acquisition processing, as one of the sequence of processingoperations, before the processing of the recording control means.

In the above-mentioned information processing apparatus, thereproduction device is a digital video tape recorder; the first formatis a format of the digital video tape recorder; the content dataacquired by the content data acquisition means is recorded to a digitalvideo tape loaded on the digital video tape recorder; and thereproduction control means controls processing of reproduction, fastforward feed, and rewind of the digital video tape loaded on the digitalvideo tape recorder, and stop of those processing.

In the above-mentioned information processing apparatus, the contentdata is data formed by a moving image and audio data correspondingthereto. The information processing apparatus further including:determination means for determining, on the basis of the timeinformation of the content data acquired by the information acquisitionmeans, a quality of the moving image, a size thereof, and a quality ofthe audio data of the content data when the content data is recorded tothe recording medium under the control of the recording control means,wherein the recording control means executes control so as to record thecontent data to the recording medium with the quality of the movingimage, the size, and the quality of the audio data determined by thedetermination means; and the processing control means, if the signal isdetected by the detection means, executes control so as to execute theprocessing of the determination means after the processing of theinformation acquisition means and before the processing of the recordingcontrol means as one of the sequence of processing operations.

In the above-mentioned information processing apparatus, the secondformat is a format specified by the DVD standard. The informationprocessing apparatus further including: generation means for generatinga DVD menu of the content data acquired by the content data acquisitionmeans on the basis of the time information of the content data acquiredby the information acquisition means, wherein the recording controlmeans executes control so as to record the content data having thesecond format to the recording medium on the basis of the DVD menugenerated by the generation means; and the processing control means, ifthe signal is detected by the detection means, executes control so as toexecute the processing of the generation means after the processing ofthe information acquisition means and before the processing of therecording control means as one of the sequence of processing operations.

In carrying out the invention and according to another aspect thereof,there is provided a program for making a computer execute, as a sequenceof processing operations, in an order given, with a predeterminedcondition used as a trigger, the steps of: acquiring content data havinga first format reproduced by a predetermined reproduction device;converting the format of the content data acquired by the content dataacquisition step from the first format to a second format; andcontrolling so as to record the content data converted to have thesecond format in the conversion step to a recording medium that isdetachable from the computer.

The above-mentioned program further making the computer execute thesteps of: controlling to display a predetermined symbol when a signalindicative that the reproduction device has been connected to thecomputer and the content data can be reproduced by the reproductiondevice is entered, the signal being supplied from the reproductiondevice; and detecting the selection of the symbol by a user, display ofthe symbol being controlled in the display control step, wherein, if theselection of the symbol by the user is detected in the detection step,the program makes the computer execute the content data acquisitionstep, the conversion step, and the recording control step as a sequenceof processing operations in this order by use of the detection as atrigger.

In the information processing apparatus and the program according to theinvention, upon detection of a signal indicative that a predeterminedreproduction device is connected to the information processing apparatusand the reproduction of content data by said reproduction device isready, the signal being supplied from the reproduction device, thissignal provides a trigger, thereby executing a sequence of processingoperations, such as capturing the content data having the first formatreproduced by the reproduction device into the information processingapparatus, converting the format of the captured content data from thefirst format to the second format, and recording the content dataconverted to have the second format to a recording medium that isdetachable from the information processing apparatus, in this order.

The information processing apparatus according to the invention may beconnected to the reproduction device in a wired or wireless manner.

The information processing apparatus according to the invention maycontrol the recording to a recording medium loaded on a driveincorporated in the information processing apparatus itself or therecording to a recording medium loaded on an external drive deviceconnected to the information processing apparatus in a wired or wirelessmanner by controlling the external drive device.

It should be noted that the present invention is obviously applicable asan information processing method corresponding to the informationprocessing apparatus according to the invention as well as a recordingmedium for recording the program according to the invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary configuration of aninformation processing system including a personal computer to which thepresent invention is applied;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary hardwareconfiguration of the personal computer to which the present invention isapplied in the information processing system shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary configuration of adigital video recorder in the information processing system shown inFIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a functional block diagram illustrating an exemplaryconfiguration of a data acquisition/DVD write block, one of softwareprograms of the personal computer shown in FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart indicative of exemplary processing by the dataacquisition/DVD write block shown in FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of the checked contents of adigital video tape;

FIG. 7 is a flowchart indicative of an example of the details of bitrate setting processing of the data acquisition/DVD write processingshown in FIG. 5;

FIG. 8 is a graph indicative of an exemplary relationship between thetotal time of data to be written to a DVD and bit rates;

FIG. 9 is a graph indicative of an exemplary relationship between thetotal time of data to be written to a DVD and the capacities with thedata written;

FIG. 10 is a functional block diagram illustrating an exemplaryconfiguration of the acquisition block of the data acquisition/DVD writeblock shown in FIG. 4;

FIG. 11 is a flowchart indicative of an example of the details of theprocessing of acquiring recorded data from the digital video tape, ofthe data acquisition/DVD write processing shown in FIG. 5;

FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating specific exemplary processing of adivided acquisition block of the acquisition block shown in FIG. 10;

FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating specific exemplary processing of thedivided acquisition block of the acquisition block shown in FIG. 10;

FIG. 14 is a diagram illustrating specific exemplary processing of thedivided acquisition block of the acquisition block shown in FIG. 10;

FIG. 15 is a diagram illustrating specific exemplary processing of thedivided acquisition block of the acquisition block shown in FIG. 10;

FIG. 16 is a diagram illustrating specific exemplary processing of thedivided acquisition block of the acquisition block shown in FIG. 10;

FIG. 17 is a flowchart indicative of exemplary details of automaticacquisition processing of the acquisition processing for acquiringrecorded data of digital video tape shown in FIG. 11;

FIG. 18 is another flowchart indicative of exemplary details ofautomatic acquisition processing of the acquisition processing foracquiring recorded data of digital video tape shown in FIG. 11;

FIG. 19 is a flowchart indicative of exemplary details of chapterregistration processing of the data acquisition/DVD write processingshown in FIG. 5;

FIG. 20 is a diagram illustrating a specific example of the chapterregistration processing shown in FIG. 19;

FIG. 21 is a diagram illustrating another specific example of thechapter registration processing shown in FIG. 19;

FIG. 22 is a diagram illustrating still another specific example of thechapter registration processing shown in FIG. 19;

FIG. 23 is a block diagram illustrating another exemplary configurationof the information processing apparatus including a personal computer towhich the present invention is applied;

FIG. 24 is a block diagram illustrating still another exemplaryconfiguration of the information processing apparatus including apersonal computer to which the present invention is applied; and

FIG. 25 is a block diagram illustrating yet another exemplaryconfiguration of the information processing apparatus including apersonal computer to which the present invention is applied.

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

Now, referring to FIG. 1, there is shown an exemplary configuration ofan information processing system practiced as one embodiment of theinvention.

In FIG. 1, an information processing system 1 has a personal computer 11(hereafter referred to a PC 11) and a digital video tape recorder 12(hereafter referred to as a DV 12) that are interconnected with aconnection line 15.

The connection line 15 may be either wired or wireless and is notlimited to a particular embodiment; in the present example, dedicatedcable i.LINK (trademark) is used. Namely, in this example, the PC 11 andthe DV 12 are interconnected with i.LINK. i.LINK, a trademark of SonyCorporation, the applicant hereof, provides IEEE (Institute ofElectrical and Electronics Engineers) 1394 high-speed digital interface.Therefore, the PC 11 and the DV 12 mutually transmits and receives thedata (stored in packets) compliant with the IEEE1394 standard.

When a digital video tape 13 recorded with predetermined video datataken by the DV 12 or another DV is loaded on the DV 12, the DV 12reproduces the video data from the digital video tape 13 and transmitsthe reproduced data to the PC 11 via the connection line 15 as areproduced video signal under the control of the PC 11 (or by the user'smanual operation).

The PC 11 receives the reproduction video signal from the DV 12 via theconnection line 15, converts the format of the video data correspondingthe received reproduced video signal, from the DV format to the DVD(Digital Versatile Disc) format (for example, MPEG-2 (Moving PictureExperts Group-2) format), and writes (or records) the video data in theconverted format to a DVD 14 loaded on the PC 11. It should be notedthat DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW, and DVD-RAM are generically referredto as the DVD 14.

Referring to FIG. 2, there is shown a detail exemplary configuration ofthe PC 11.

In the PC 11 shown in FIG. 2, a CPU 21 is based on Pentium (trademark)Processor of Intel Corporation for example and connected to a front sidebus (FSB) 54. The FSB 54 is connected to the Northbridge 23. TheNorthbridge 23 has an AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port) 55 and isconnected to a hub interface 53.

The Northbridge 23 is based on 440BX, AGP Host Bridge Controller ofIntel Corporation, for example, controlling the CPU 21 and a memory 22.The memory 22 is configured as RAM (Random Access Memory) and a cachememory (both not shown).

The RAM is based on DRAM (Dynamic RAM) for example and stores programsthat are executed by the CPU 21 or data that is required for the CPU 21to operate. To be more specific, the RAM stores an OS (Operating System)loaded from a HDD 34 and an Internet program when a boot sequence hasbeen completed. The OS is a program that controls computer's basicoperations, represented by Windows XP (trademark) of MicrosoftCorporation or Mac OS (trademark) of Apple Computer, Inc., for example.

The cache memory is based on SRAM (Static RAM) that has higher accessspeed than RAM, and caches (or temporarily stores) programs or data tobe used by the CPU 21.

It should be noted that the CPU 21 incorporates a primary cache thatoperates faster than the cache memory and is controlled by the CPU 21itself.

The Northbridge 23 also controls a video controller 24 via an AGP 55.The video controller 24 controls an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) 25 or adisplay (hereafter referred to a VGA 26) based on VGA (Video GraphicsArray).

The video controller 24 receives data (image data or text data) suppliedfrom the CPU 21 and generates the image data corresponding to thereceived data or directly stores the received data into an incorporatedvideo memory (not shown). The video controller 24 transmits an imagecorresponding to the image data stored in the video memory to the LCD 25or the VGA 26. The LCD 25 or the VGA 26 display an image or a text onthe basis of the data supplied from the video controller 24.

The Northbridge 23 is also connected to a Southbridge 27 via the hubinterface 53. The Southbridge 27, based on PIIX4E of Intel Corporationfor example, executes various I/O (Input/Output) control operations,such as control over devices connected to an AC link bus 56, a USB bus57, and an IDE bus 58.

To be more specific, the AC link bus 56 is connected with a modem 28 andan audio input/output block 29. The 28 is connected to a public switchedline, thereby executing communication processing through the publicswitched line or the Internet (both not shown). The audio input/outputblock 29 captures voice from a microphone (not shown), generates datacorresponding to the captured voice, and outputs the generated data tothe memory 22. The audio input/output block 29 also drives a speaker(not shown) to sound voice.

The USB bus 57 of the Southbridge 27 is connected with a USB connector30 to provide USB device connections. Through the USB bus 57, a MemoryStick slot 31 and a Bluetooth communication block 33 are connected tothe Southbridge 27. A Memory Stick (trademark) 32 is loaded in theMemory Stick slot 31.

The Memory Stick 32 is a kind of flash memory card developed by SonyCorporation, the applicant hereof. The Memory Stick 32 is configured byaccommodating a flash memory element, a kind of EEPROM (ElectricallyErasable and Programmable Read Only Memory), a non-volatile memory, intoa small, thin plastic case having dimensions of 21.5 mm (long)×50 mm(wide)×2.8 mm (thick). The Memory Stick 32 has a 10-pin terminal throughwhich various kinds of data such as image, voice, and music for exampleare written to or read from it. The Bluetooth communication block 33executes communication based on the Bluetooth standard.

The IDE bus 58 of the Southbridge 27 is connected with a HDD 34. The IDEbus 58 is also electrically connected with so-called IDE devices, suchas a CD-ROM (Compact Disc-Read Only Memory) drive 35 and a DVD-R/RWdrive 36. The above mentioned DVD 14 is loaded on the DVD-R/RW drive 36.

The Southbridge 27 is also connected with a BIOS (Basic Input OutputSystem) 39, a PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) bus 51, and an LPC(Low Pin Count) bus 52.

The BIOS 39 is a group of programs based on the basic operation commandsof the PC 11 and stored in a ROM (Read Only Memory) (not shown) forexample. The BIOS 39 is executes control over the transfer (orinput/output) of data between the OS or an application program andperipheral devices.

The LPC bus 52 is connected with an I/O (Input/Output) interface 37 anda controller 38.

The I/O interface 37 is connected with a parallel terminal 40 and aserial terminal 41, transferring data with devices connected to theseterminals.

The controller 38 is connected with input devices (or input means) suchas a jog dial 42, a keyboard 43, and a mouse 44, controlling these inputdevices and the power supplied from a power unit (not shown).

The PCI bus 51 is connected with an i.LINK 45 and a PC card interface46. As described above, the i.LINK 45 supplies signals (for example,control signals for directing the reproduction of the DV 12 which willbe described later) supplied from the CPU 21 to the DV 12 via thededicated cable 15 and signals (for example, a reproduced video signalwhich will be described later) supplied from the DV 12 via the cable 15to the CPU 21, the memory 22, or the HDD 34. The PC card interface 46supplies the data supplied from a device (or a card (not shown)) loadedin a slot 47 to the CPU 21 or the memory 22 and outputs the datasupplied from the CPU 21 to the card loaded in the slot 47.

The slot 47 is connected with a drive 48 as required as shown in FIG. 2.In this case, the drive 48 is connected to the PCI bus 51 via the slot47 and the PC card interface 46. The drive 48 reads data from aremovable recording medium 49 such as loaded magnetic disc, opticaldisc, magneto-optical disc, or semiconductor memory and supplies theread data to the memory 22. Also the drive 48 stores the data generatedby the processing by the CPU 21 to the removable recording medium 49loaded on the drive 48.

Referring to FIG. 3, there is shown a detail exemplary configuration ofthe DV 12 of the information processing system 1 shown in FIG. 1.

As shown in FIG. 3, the DV 12 has: a CCD (Charge Coupled Device) 71 thattakes an object as a moving image and outputs it as an image signal; amicrophone 72 for capturing voice around the DV 12 while the CD 71 takesthe object, and outputting it as an audio signal; a video signalcomposite block 73 for combining an image signal supplied from the CCD71 with an audio signal supplied from the microphone 72 to output arecord video signal; a video signal recording/reproducing block 74 thatA/D (Analog to Digital) converts a record video signal supplied from thevideo signal composite block 73, encodes the converted signal, modulatesthe encoded signal, and supplies the modulated signal to a head 75,thereby recording the signal to the above-mentioned digital video tape13 and outputting the reproduced video signal obtained from the digitalvideo tape 13 via the head 75; and the head 75.

The DV 12 also has a control block 76 that receives a vertical syncsignal from the video signal recording/reproducing block 74, outputs acontrol signal corresponding to this vertical sync signal to the videosignal recording/reproducing block 74 in synchronization with thevertical sync signal, and controls the entire operation of the DV 12 onthe basis of operation command signals supplied from an operator block77 and control signals supplied from the PC 11 via the cable 15 and ani.LINK 78 and the operator block 77 based on buttons, switches, or aremote controller that outputs operation command signals correspondingto input operations made by the user.

Further, the DV 12 has the i.LINK 78, a video signal separation block79, a speaker 80, and an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) 81.

The i.LINK 78, connected with the above-mentioned i.LINK 45 (FIG. 2) ofthe PC 11 via the connection cable 15, transmits a reproduced videosignal (a digital signal) supplied from the video signalrecording/reproducing block 74 to the PC 11 via the cable 15 andreceives a control signal supplied from the PC 11 to transmit it to thecontrol block 76.

The control signals transmitted by the PC 11 are not limited toparticular ones; therefore control signals for executing various controloperations can be used. In this example, at least the following controlsignals are used, for example. The control signals are: for reproducingthe digital video tape 13 loaded on the DV 12 at normal speed and atk-times speed to the normal speed (k can be any number other than 1, ifk is a positive number, it indicates the reproduction in the forwarddirection and, if k is a negative number, it indicates the reproductionin the reverse direction); for fast forward reproduction; for rewind;and for stop of tape operation (reproduction (including k-timesreproduction), fast forward, or rewind).

Therefore, In this example, when a control signal indicative ofreproduction (including k-times reproduction), fast forward, or rewindis transmitted from the PC 11 via the cable 15, the control block 76receives it through the i.LINK 78 and executes the processingcorresponding to the received control signal, namely, reproduction(including k-times reproduction), fast forward, or rewind. Next, when astop control signal is transmitted from the PC 11 via the cable 15, thecontrol block 76 receives it through the i.LINK 78 and stops theprocessing being executed on the video tape recorder 13 loaded on the DV12. Thus, the DV 12 can be remotely controlled by the PC 11 through thei.LINK 78.

The video signal separation block 79 demodulates a digital reproducedvideo signal supplied from the video signal recording/reproducing block74, decodes the demodulated signal, D/A (Digital to Analog) converts thedecoded signal, separates the converted signal into an audio signal andan image signal, and supplies the audio signal to the speaker 80 and theimage signal to the LCD 81. The speaker 80 sounds the audio signalsupplied from the video signal separation block 79. The LCD 81 displaysthe image signal supplied from the video signal separation block 79 as amoving image.

The following describes, with reference to drawings, a software programfor realizing a function of the functions provided by the PC 11 shown inFIG. 2 to the function of which the present invention is applied;namely, the function of continuously (or in a batch) executing theprocessing of acquiring the video data (hereafter simply referred to asrecorded data) from the digital video tape 13 loaded on the DV 12 andwriting (or recording) this data to the DVD 14 loaded on the DVD-R/RWdrive 36 (in what follows, this software program is referred to as adata acquisition/DVD write block).

Referring to FIG. 4, there is shown an exemplary configuration of a dataacquisition/DVD write block 91.

As shown in FIG. 4, the data acquisition/DVD write block 91 has astartup block 101, a processing control block 102, a DV control block103, a check block 104, an acquisition block 105, a bit rate settingblock 106, a menu creation block 107, a DVD write block 108, a DVDformat block 109, and a checked contents/setting content storage block110.

Except for the checked contents/setting contents storage block 110, eachof the blocks 101 through 109 is a module in this example. Each of thesemodules has an independent algorithm and each module executes a uniqueoperation in accordance with its algorithm. Namely, each module is readby the CPU 21 (FIG. 2) from time to time to be executed.

To be more specific, the startup block 101 always monitors the status ofthe connection with the DV 12. When the DV 12 is connected to the PC 11and the DV 12 is powered on, the startup block 101 starts up the entiredata acquisition/DVD write block 91.

When the data acquisition/DVD write block 91 has been started up, theprocessing control block 102 executes control such that the processingoperations of the check block 104 through the DVD format block 109 aresequentially and continuously executed (as a sequence of processingoperations) in a predetermined sequence (In this example, in the orderof numbers written over the arrow markers drawn between the processingcontrol block 102 and each of the check block 104 through the DVD formatblock 109).

To be more specific, when the DVD format block 109 puts the DVD 14loaded on the DVD-R/RW drive 36 into a write enabled state, the checkblock 104 checks the contents recorded to the digital video tape 13loaded on the DV 12 and the bit rate setting block 106 sets optimum bitrates with which video data is written to the DVD 14 (a bit rate withwhich image data is written and a bit rate with which audio data iswritten) on the basis of a result of the check.

Next, the acquisition block 105 acquires the recorded data from thedigital video tape 13 loaded on the DV 12, converts the format of theacquired data from DV format to DVD format, and temporarily stores theconverted data to the HDD 34.

Then, the menu creation block 107 creates a DVD menu corresponding tothe video data stored in the HDD 34 and the DVD write block 108 writes(or records) the video data from the HDD 34 to the DVD 14 loaded on theDVD-R/RW drive 36 on the basis of the created DVD menu.

On the basis of a command (or a request) supplied from the check block104 or the acquisition block 105 via the processing control block 102,the DV control block 103 generates the above-mentioned control signaland transmits it to the DV 12, thereby executing control such asreproduction (including k-times reproduction), rewind, or fast forwardfor example of the digital video tape 13 loaded on the DV 12.

The checked contents/setting contents storage block 110 is arranged inthe memory 22 (FIG. 2) for example, in which the contents of therecorded data of the digital video tape 13 checked by the check block104 and the contents of the bit rate settings made by the bit ratesetting block 106.

The following describes the processing to be executed by the dataacquisition/DVD write block 91 shown in FIG. 4 with reference to theflowchart shown in FIG. 5.

First, in step S1, the startup block 101 determines whether the DV 12(FIG. 1) is connected to the PC 11 (FIG. 1) and its power (not shown)has bas been turned.

If the DV 12 is found not connected to the PC 11 and its power notturned on, then the startup block 101 returns its processing to step S1to repeat the above-mentioned processing therefrom. Namely, the startupblock 101 always monitors whether the DV 12 is connected to the PC 11and its power (not shown) has been turned.

For example, if the i.LINK 78 of the DV 12 and the i.LINK 45 (FIG. 2) ofthe PC 11 are interconnected via the cable 15 as shown in FIG. 3 and thepower of the DV 12 has been turned on, then the control block 76 of theDV 12 transmits a predetermined identification number indicative of theDV 12 to the PC 11 via the i.LINK 78 and the cable 15.

Namely, having turned on the power of the DV 12 denotes that contentdata (or recorded data of the digital video tape 13) is ready forreproduction. Connection with the PC 11 denotes that the PC 11 can getthe content data reproduced by the DV 12. Therefore, this identificationnumber is also a signal indicative that the DV 12 is connected to the PC11 via the cable 15 and the content data can be reproduced by the DV 12.

Therefore, having received this identification number via the i.LINK 45as shown in FIG. 4, the startup block 101 determines that the DV 12 hasbeen connected to the PC 11 and its power has been turned on in step S1shown in FIG. 5, thereby carrying its processing forward to step S2.

In step S2, the processing control block 102 executes control such thatthe processing operations of steps S2 through S13 to be described laterare executed in a batch (or continuously) as a sequence of processingoperations. In other words, when viewed from the user, the processingoperations of steps S2 through S13 are automatically sequentiallyexecuted without user's manual intervention. It should be noted that theexecution of processing without user's manual intervention (namely,without user's operating the jog dial 42, the keyboard 43, or the mouse44 on the input device) by the CPU 21 own its own discretion (or inaccordance with a currently executed program) is referred herein to asautomatic processing.

It should be noted that, in this case, a trigger is required to startthe processing (namely, the above-mentioned sequence control) by theprocessing control block 102. This trigger is not limited to aparticular event. For example, the trigger may be the detection by thestartup block 101 (namely, the detection of the connection of DV 12 tothe PC 11 and the turn-on of the power of the DV 12) (namely, if thecondition is found satisfied in step S1). With this trigger, theprocessing of step S2 may start. Alternatively, after the detection bythe startup block 101, a software button (not shown) for direction theexecuting of the processing of steps S2 and on may be displayed on theLCD 25 (FIG. 2) for example, which is selected by the user with themouse 44 (FIG. 2) for example by moving the cursor (not shown) of themouse 44 to the software button and clicking the left button (not shown)of the mouse 44, thereby providing trigger. With this trigger, theprocessing of step S2 may start.

In step S2, on the basis of any of the above-mentioned trigger, the DVDformat block 109 determines if the DVD 14 loaded on the DVD-R/RW drive36 has already been written.

If the DVD 14 is found not already written in step S2, then the DVDformat block 109 carries its processing forward to step S6.

On the other hand, if the DVD 14 is found written already, then the DVDformat block 109 determines in step S3 whether the contents recorded tothe DVD 14 are deletable or not.

If the contents recorded to the DVD 14 are found not deletable (orcannot be deleted) in step S3, then the DVD format block 109 displays amessage prompting the exchange of the DVD 14 on the LCD 25 (FIG. 2) forexample and then carries its processing backward to step S2 to repeatthe above-mentioned processing therefrom. Namely, when the DVD 14 fromwhich the contents cannot be deleted is unloaded from the DVD-R/RW drive36 by the user and another DVD 14 is loaded on the DVD-R/RW drive 36,the DVD format block 109 determined in step S2 whether the newly loadedDVD 14 has already been written or not.

On the other hand, if the contents recorded to the DVD 14 are founddeletable in step S3, then the DVD format block 109 deletes the contentsfrom the DVD 14 in step S5.

Thus, the DVD format block 109 puts the DVD 14 into a state in which newdata is writable, in the processing operations of steps S2 through S5.The sequence of these processing operations (steps S2 through S5) of theDVD format block 109 is not limited to the sequence shown in FIG. 5;that is, these processing operations may be executed in any sequence aslong as they are executed before the processing of the DVD write block108 (the processing to be executed in step S13 to be described later).

If the DVD 14 is found not already written in step S2 or if theprocessing of step S5 has ended, namely, the DVD format block 109 hascompleted its processing, then, the processing control block 102 makesthe check block 104 executes its processing.

Namely, the check block 104 rewinds the digital video tape 13 loaded onthe DV 12 in step S6.

To be more specific, the check block 104 requests the DV control block103 through the processing control block 102 for the rewinding of thedigital video tape 13. In response to this request, the DV control block103 generates a control signal for directing “rewind” and transmits thegenerated control signal to the DV 12 through the i.LINK 45 (FIG. 2).

When the transmitted control signal is supplied to the control block 76via the cable 15 and the i.LINK 78 as shown in FIG. 3, the control block76 executes the processing of rewinding the digital video tape 13.

Next, detecting that the digital video tape 13 has been rewound to itsbeginning through the i.LINK 45 (FIG. 2), the check block 104 shown inFIG. 4 checks the contents recorded to the digital video tape 13 in stepS7 shown in FIG. 5.

A method of the check to be executed in step S7 is not limited to aparticular one; In this example, the following method is used.

That is, the check block 104 requests the DV control block 103 throughthe processing control block 102 for the fast forward reproduction ofthe digital video tape 13. In response to this request, the DV controlblock 103 generates a control signals for directing “reproduce atk-times speed (k being any positive value higher than 1) and transmitsthe control signal to the DV 12 through the i.LINK 45 (FIG. 2).

As shown in FIG. 3, when the transmitted control signal is supplied tothe control block 76 through the cable 15 and the i.LINK 78, the controlblock 76 starts fast forward reproducing the digital video tape 13 atk-times speed. Then, the video signal recording/reproducing block 74sequentially transmits the video signal reproduced from the digitalvideo tape 13 through the head 75 to the PC 11 through the i.LINK 78 andthe cable 15.

In the case of the reproduction at k-times fast forward reproduction,all frames recorded to the digital video tape 13 are not reproduced, buta predetermined number of frames are selectively reproduced. Namely, inthis case, the frames located at predetermined intervals in all framesrecorded to the digital video tape 13 are scanned and the datacorresponding to the scanned frames are transmitted to the PC 11 fromthe DV 12 as a reproduced video signal. It should be noted that thedigital video data format specifies the recording of 30 frames (orimages) each second. The term “frame” as used herein denotes the framespecified in the digital video data format.

The check block 104 shown in FIG. 4 obtains the reproduced video signal(or the data recorded to the scanned frames) through the i.LINK 45 (FIG.2) and, from the obtained frame data, further obtains the timeinformation of each frame.

To be more specific, the frame data includes not only the video data(image and audio data) corresponding to that frame, but also theinformation about the frame number of that frame and the timeinformation such as the information about the time (year, month, day,hour, minute, and second) at which that frame was taken and, if thatframe is located at the recording start point, the informationindicative of that point (hereafter referred to as recording start pointinformation). It should be noted that a position (or a point) on thedigital video tape 13 at which the take started by pressing a recordbutton (not shown) on the operator block 77 by the user shown in FIG. 3is referred to as a recording start point. It should also be noted thatthe frame immediately preceding the frame having recording start pointinformation is referred, for the sake of description, to as a framehaving recording end point information. Namely, the frame havingrecording end point information does not sometimes include the specificinformation associated with recording end point information.

Consequently, the check block 104 shown in FIG. 4 obtains the timeinformation of such frame (that has been scanned) and, on the basis ofthe obtained time information, checks the contents recorded to thedigital video tape 13.

To be more specific, having detected the frame that includes recordingstart point information, the check block 104 obtains the timeinformation of the detected frame. Next, having detected the frame thatincludes recording end point information, the check block 104 obtainsthe time information of the detected frame. Then, the check block 104recognizes an section from the frame including recording start pointinformation to the frame including recording end point information asone recording section and generates the time information about thisrecording -section. Namely, the check block 104 generates the timeinformation about the recording section, including the start time (year,month, day, hour, minute, and second) of the recording section, the endtime (year, month, day, hour, minute, and second) of the recordingsection and the length (or duration) of that recording section.

Meanwhile, generally, with the DVD 14, all recorded data are dividedinto a plurality of recording sections in advance. When a predeterminedoperation is executed, the reproduction of an arbitrary recordingsection is enabled from its beginning. These recording sections on theDVD 14 are generally called chapters. In the present embodiment, if therecorded data of the digital video tape 13 captured in the PC 11 iswritten (or recorded) to the DVD 14, one recording section from apredetermined recording start point to the recording end point thatappears next in the recorded data of the digital video tape 13 ishandled as one chapter of the DVD 14. Therefore, such recording sectionbetween the recording start point and the recording end point is alsocalled a chapter also before being recorded to the DVD 14.

It should be noted, however, that, as described above, in this case, theframes that can be checked by the check block 104 (or that can beactually obtained by the -check block 104) are only scanned frames andtherefore the frames having recording start point and recording endpoint are not always scanned. Therefore, the check block 104 comparesthe take time of the first frame obtained this time with the take timeof the second frame obtained immediately before. If the section betweenthese frames is found separated more than a predetermined time, then thecheck block 104 recognizes that the first and second frames aredifferent chapters. Namely, the CPU 21 (FIG. 2) regards the second frameobtained immediately before as a frame that includes recording end pointinformation (as a last frame of the target chapter checked for far) andregards the first frame obtained this time as a frame that includesrecording start point information (as the start frame of a next chapter(to be checked next) following the target chapter), thereby recognizingthe section between the second frame and the first frame as a chaptersection.

Thus, every time a chapter is recognized, the check block 104 generatesthe time information of the newly recognized chapter.

To be more specific, it is supposed as shown in FIG. 6 for example thata part of the recording contents of the digital video tape 13 isconfigured by recording section 121 made up of frames 0 through 1000,recording section 122 made up of frames 1001 through 1999, recordingsection 123 made up of frames 2000 through 3300, and a recording section124 made up of frames 3301 through 4000. It should be noted that, in thefigure, a area (frames for one second (30 frames)) indicated by “ST” ineach of the sections 121 through 124 denotes an area (frames) in whichthe above-mentioned recording start point information and so on arestored as attached to the video data and an area indicated by “sectiondata” denotes an area in which only the video data is stored.

In this case, as described above with reference to FIG. 4, when thecheck block 104 checks the recorded contents of the digital video tape13, only the frames scanned by fast forward reproduction are supplied.Therefore, the contents checked in the processing of step S7 (FIG. 5) bythe check block 104 are not actual recording sections 121 through 124but chapters (or section data) 131 through 134, as shown in the checkedcontents in FIG. 6.

Namely, in the example shown in FIG. 6, in the recording section 121,the data of frames 1 through 998 is recognized as chapter 131 and thedata of frame 0, frame 999, and frame 1000 are not recognized as chapter131.

In recording section 122, data of frames 1003 through 1998 is recognizedas chapter 132 and the data of frame 1001, frame 1002, and frame 1999are not recognized as chapter 132.

In recording section 123, the data of frames 2003 through 3228 isrecognized as chapter 133 and the data of frames 2000 through 2002,frame 3229, and frame 3300 are not recognized as chapter 133.

In recording section 124, the data of frames 3307 through 3338 isrecognized as chapter 134 and the data of frames 3301 through 3306,frame 3339, and frame 4000 are not recognized as chapter 134.

It should be noted that data 141 through 148 not recognized in theprocessing of step S7 (FIG. 5) as shown in FIG. 6 are referred to asunrecognized data.

Having detected, through the i.LINK 45 (FIG. 2), the fast forwardreproduction of the digital video tape 13 to its end, the check block104 generates a chapter lists (not shown) listing the time informationof each chapter recognized so far, totals the times (the period of timefrom chapter start time to chapter end time) of the listed chapters, andadds the time of the unrecognized data to the obtained total, therebycomputing total time Tx of the recorded data of the digital video tape13.

It should also be noted that, as described above, the start frame andthe end frame of each chapter included in the chapter list do not alwaysmatch the start frame and end frame of an actual recording section. Forexample, as shown in FIG. 6, the start frame of recording section 121 isthe frame having frame number 0 and the end frame is the frame havingframe number 1000. On the other hand, the start frame of chapter 131recognized by the check block 104 (FIG. 4) is the frame having framenumber 1 and its end frame is the frame having frame number 998.

Of the start frames and the end frames of the chapters included in thechapter list, the check block 104 attaches a predetermined flag(hereafter referred to as an ambiguous flag) to each frame not includingrecording start point information or recording end point information andadds this ambiguous flag as the information of the chapter list.

Thus, In this example, the check block 104 checks the time information(or the chapter list) of each of the chapters and total time Tx of therecorded data as the recorded contents of the digital video tape 13.Then, the check block 104 stores the checked recorded contents (thechapter list and total time Tx) into the checked contents/settingcontents storage block 110 through the processing control block 102. Itshould be noted that the contents (the contents of the recorded data ofthe digital video tape 13 to be checked in the processing of step S7(FIG. 5)) to be stored in the checked contents/setting contents storageblock 110 may obviously be information other than described above.

When the recorded contents of the digital video tape 13 have been storedin the checked contents/setting contents storage block 110, theprocessing control block 102 makes the bit rate setting block 106executes its processing.

Namely, in step S8 shown in FIG. 5, on the basis of total time Tx of therecorded data of the digital video tape 13 just stored in the checkedcontents/setting contents storage block 110, the bit rate setting block106 determines the picture quality, image size, and sound (audio data)quality of the moving image (image data) if the recorded data of thedigital video tape 13 is written (or recorded) to the DVD 14 loaded onthe DVD-R/RW drive 36 in step S13 to be described later.

Of the recorded data of the digital video tape 13, image quality, imagesize, and sound quality depends on bit rates (the bit rate of image whenimage data is written and the bit rate of audio when audio data iswritten) with which the recorded data of the digital video tape 13 iswritten to the DVD 14. Namely, in the processing of step S8, on thebasis of total time Tx of the recorded data of the digital video tape13, optimum bit rates among those with which all recorded data of thedigital video tape 13 are writable are selectively set within a range ofthe maximum capacity (or the writable capacity) of the DVD 14.

Therefore, the processing of step S8 is hereafter referred to as “bitrate setting processing”. “Bit rate setting processing” of this examplewill be described in detail later with reference to the flowchart shownin FIG. 7.

After the above-mentioned processing of the bit rate setting block 106,the processing control block 102 makes the acquisition block 105 executeits processing. Namely, in step S9 shown in FIG. 5, the acquisitionblock 105 acquires the recorded data of the digital video tape 13 fromthe DV 12 through the i.LINK 45 (FIG. 2) and temporarily stores thereceived data into the HDD 34. Further, the acquisition block 105converts the format of the video data stored in the HDD 34 from DVformat into DVD format (for example, MPEG-2 format), stores theformat-converted video data into the HDD 34, and deletes the video datahaving DV format from the HDD 34. This processing of step S9 ishereafter referred to as “digital video tape recorded data acquisitionprocessing”. It should be noted that “digital video tape recorded dataacquisition processing” In this example will be described in detaillater with reference to FIGS. 10 through 18.

Meanwhile, the DVD 14 can also record a menu called a DVD menu, inaddition to actual video data. In accordance with this DVD menu, theuser can execute various operations associated with the reproduction ofthe video data recorded to the DVD 14. In addition, a menu called achapter menu can be included in this DVD menu. The user can selectdesired chapters from the chapter menu, starting the reproduction of theselected chapters from their start position.

So, after the processing by the acquisition block 105, the processingcontrol block 102 makes the menu creation block 107 executes itsprocessing. Namely, in step S10, the menu creation block 107 selects apredetermined chapter from among the chapters included in the chapterlist (actually, the chapter list updated in the processing of step S9,which will be described later) generated in step S7 and stored in thechecked contents/setting contents storage block 110, registers theselected chapter with the chapter menu, and generates a final chaptermenu (to be written to the DVD 14). This processing of step S10 isreferred to as “chapter registration processing”. It should be notedthat “chapter registration processing” In this example will be describedlater with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. 19.

After “chapter registration processing” of step S10, the menu creationblock 107 creates, in step S11, a DVD menu that includes the chaptermenu generated in step S10.

When the DVD menu has been created by the menu creation block 107, theprocessing control block 102 makes the DVD write block 108 execute itsprocessing. Namely, having created a DVD structure in step S12, then, instep S13, DVD write block 108 writes the video data (the video data inDVD format stored in the HDD 34) acquired by the acquisition block 105in step S9 to the DVD 14 loaded on the DVD-R/RW drive 36 with the bitrate set by the bit rate setting block 106 in step S8 (namely, the bitrate stored in the checked contents/setting contents storage block 110)in accordance with the created DVD structure. It should be noted thatthe data structures such as the location and layer of the data to berecorded to the DVD 14 are generically referred to as a DVD structure.

Thus, the data acquisition/DVD write block 91 shown in FIG. 4 forexecuting, in a bulk (or continuously) a sequence of processingoperations such as acquiring the recorded data of the digital video tape13 from the DV 12 and recording the acquired data to the DVD 14 loadedon the DVD-R/RW drive 36 is installed beforehand in the HDD 34 forexample of the PC 11 shown in FIG. 2. Therefore, when the startup block101 of the data acquisition/DVD write block 91 detects that the DV 12 isconnected to the PC 11 and its power has been turned on, the dataacquisition/DVD write block 91 automatically starts up, executing itsprocessing (a sequence of processing operations of steps S2 through S13)without the manual intervention of the user (namely, automatically).

In other words, the PC 11 comprises connection means for connecting to areproduction device for reproducing content data recorded in a firstformat; content data acquisition means for acquiring the content datareproduced by the reproduction device connected to the connection means;conversion means for converting a format of the content data acquired bythe content data acquisition means from the first format to a secondformat; recording control means for executing control such that thecontent data converted to the second format by the conversion means isrecorded from the information processing apparatus to a predeterminedremovable recording medium; detection means for detecting a signalsupplied from the reproduction device indicative that the reproductiondevice is connected to the connection means and reproduction of thecontent data by the reproduction device is ready; and processing controlmeans for executing control such that, if the signal is detected by thedetection means, processing by the content data acquisition means,processing by the conversion means, and processing by the recordingcontrol means are continuously executed in this order.

Namely, without special operations by the user (that is, by simplyconnecting the DV 12 to the PC 11 and turning on its power (or asrequired, simply by clicking a software button for directing theexecution of the data acquisition/DVD write block 91 with the mouse44)), the recorded data of the digital video tape 13 is automaticallycaptured from the DV 12 into the PC 11 to be automatically recorded tothe DVD 14 loaded on the DVD-R/RW drive 36.

Therefore, the data acquisition/DVD write block 91 can solve theabove-mentioned problems inherent to the related-art techniques.

It should be noted that, in FIG. 2, the video data automaticallycaptured in the PC 11 can be recorded not only to the DVD 14 loaded onthe DVD-R/RW drive 36, but also to various other recording mediaincluding a CD-R (not shown) loaded on the CD-ROM drive 35, the MemoryStick 32 loaded in the Memory Stick slot 31, and the removable recordingmedium 49 loaded on the drive 48, for example.

The following describes the details of the above-mentioned “bit ratesetting processing (step S8)”, “digital video tape recorded dataacquisition processing (step S9)”, and “chapter registration processing(step S10)” in this order with reference to drawings.

First, “bit rate setting processing” In this example will be describedwith reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. 7.

In step S31, the bit rate setting block 106 shown in FIG. 4 determineswhether the image data can be written to the DVD 14 with a bit rate ofmaximum first value and the audio data with a bit rate of maximum secondvalue, in the data (the recorded data of the digital video tape 13) tobe written to the DVD 14, on the basis of total time Tx of the recordeddata of the digital video tape 13 checked by the check block 104 in stepS7 (FIG. 5) and stored in the checked contents/setting contents storageblock 110.

In this example, the first value (the maximum value) of the bit rate ofimage is 8 Mbps and the second value (the maximum value) of the bit rateof audio is 1.567 Mbps specified in non-compressed straight rate PCM(Pulse Coded Modulation), for example.

In this case, determines in step S31 whether inequality (1) shown belowis established, thereby determining whether, of the data to be writtento the DVD 14, the image data can be written to the DVD 14 with a bitrate of maximum first value and the audio data with a bit rate ofmaximum second value.(B1+B2)×Tx<Cmax  (1)

In inequality (1), B1 denotes the first value (bps) of the bit rate ofimage, B2 denotes the second value (bps) of the bit rate of audio, Txdenotes to total time (seconds) of the video data to be written to theDVD 14 (to total time (seconds) of the recorded data of the digitalvideo tape 13 stored in the checked contents/setting contents storageblock 110), and Cmax denotes a maximum recordable capacity (bits) of theDVD 14.

If inequality (1) is found established in step S31, then, in step S32,the bit rate setting block 106 provides a first setting in which theimage data is written to the DVD 14 with the bit rate of first value B1and the audio data with the bit rate of second value B2 (innon-compressed straight PCM format), upon which the bit rate settingblock 106 returns its processing.

On the other hand, if inequality (1) is found not established in stepS31, then the bit rate setting block 106 determines in step S33 whetherthe image data of the data to be written to the DVD 14 can be writtenthereto with the bit rate of maximum first value and the audio data witha predetermined bit rate of third value lower than the maximum secondvalue.

In this example, the third value of the bit rate for audio data is 0.384Mbps specified in the compressed format of Dolby AC-3, for example.

In this case, the bit rate setting block 106 determines in step S33whether inequality (2) shown below is established, thereby determiningwhether the image data of the data to be written to the DVD 14 can bewritten thereto with the bit rate of first value and the audio data withthe bit rate of third value.(B1+B3)×Tx<Cmax  (2)

In inequality (2), B3 denotes the third value (pbs) of the bit rate foraudio data.

If inequality (2) is found established in step S33, then the bit ratesetting block 106 provides, in step S34, a second setting in which theimage data is written to the DVD 14 with the bit rate of first value B1and the audio data with the bit rate of third value B3 (namely, in thecompressed format of Dolby AC-3), upon which the bit rate setting block106 returns its processing.

On the other hand, if inequality (2) is found not established in stepS33, then, in step S35, the bit rate setting block 106 sets the writingof the audio data to the bit rate of third value B3, computing the bitrate of the image data that can be written within the capacity of theDVD 14.

In this example, the bit rate setting block 106 computes value B4 of abit rate of the image data that satisfies inequality (3) shown below,for example.(B4+B3)×Tx<Cmax  (3)

In inequality (3), B4 denotes a fourth value of the bit rate of theimage data that is set (or computed) in step S35.

Next, the bit rate setting block 106 provides a third setting in whichthe image data is written to the DVD 14 with the bit rate of fourthvalue B4 computed in step S35 and the audio data with the bit rate ofthird value B3 (in the compressed format of Dolby AC-3), upon which thebit rate setting block 106 returns its processing.

The following describes a specific example of “bit rate settingprocessing” with reference to FIGS. 8 and 9.

FIG. 8 shows a relationship between total time Tx of the data to bewritten to the DVD 14 (total time Tx of the recorded data of the digitalvideo tape 13 checked in step S7 (FIG. 5)) and the bit rates to be set.FIG. 9 shows a relationship between total time Tx of the data to bewritten to the DVD 14 and the data capacities when the data is writtento the DVD 14.

For example, it is supposed that there exist, as the data to be writtento the DVD 14, data Da with total time Tx=Ta (total time Ta denotes timebelow maximum time T1 to which the first setting is applied), data Dbwith total time Tx=Tb (total time Tb denotes time below maximum time T2to which the second setting is applied), and data Dc with total timeTx=Tc (total time Tc denotes time within a range to which the thirdsetting is applied).

In this case, with data Da, the first setting is provided. Namely,because the total time of data Da is time Ta, first value B1 which isthe maximum value of image is set to the bit rate of image as indicatedwith line 151 shown in FIG. 8 and second value B2 which is the maximumvalue of audio is set to the bit rate of audio as indicated with line153 shown in FIG. 8 (non-compressed straight PCM format is set).Therefore, as indicated with a line 161 shown in FIG. 9, if data Da iswritten to the DVD 14, then capacity Cb of all capacity (or maximumcapacity Cmax) writable on the DVD 14 is used (or recorded).

With data Db, the second setting is provided. Namely, because the totaltime of data Db is time Tb, first value B1 which is the maximum value ofimage is set to the bit rate of image as indicated with line 151 shownin FIG. 8 and third value B3 which below maximum value B1 of audio isset to the bit rate of audio as indicated with line 154 shown in FIG. 8(compressed format such as Dolby AC-3 is set). Therefore, as indicatedwith line 162 shown in FIG. 9, if data Db is written to the DVD 14, thencapacity Ca of all capacity (or maximum capacity Cmax) writable on theDVD 14 is used (or recorded).

With data Dc, the third setting is provided. Namely, because the totaltime of data Dc is time Tc, fourth value B4 determined by acharacteristic in which the bit rate linearly decreases as total time Txincreases (in the example shown in FIG. 8, the characteristic indicatedwith line 152) is set to the bit rate of image (computed in step S35)and third value B3 as indicated with line 154 shown in FIG. 8 is set tothe bit rate of audio (compressed format such as Dolby AC-3 is set).Therefore, as indicated with line 163 shown in FIG. 9, if data Dc iswritten to the DVD 14, up to writable maximum capacity Cmax of the DVD14 is used (or recorded).

Thus, if total time Tx of the data to be written to the DVD 14 (namely,total time Tx of the recorded data of the digital video tape 13 checkedin step S7 (FIG. 5)) is lower than time T1, then the first setting inwhich both the bit rates of image and audio are the maximum (first valueB1 of image and second value B2 of audio) is provided.

If total time Tx is longer than time T1 and shorter than time T2, thesecond setting in which the bit rate of image is left unchanged and onlythe bit rate of audio is lowered (namely, the third value lower than thesecond value is specified) is provided.

In the second setting, the image quality is left unchanged and the soundquality is reduced first as described above in this example. Obviously,the image quality may be lowered first, with the sound quality leftunchanged. However, because of the reasons shown below, the secondsetting of this example (namely, the sound quality is lowered first withthe image quality left unchanged) is preferred. The first reason isthat, as compared with the image quality, the deterioration due to thereduction of the bit rate of the sound quality is barely transmitted tothe user. In other words, if the audio bit rate is lowered from secondvalue B2 to third value B3, human auditory sense can hardly detects thedeterioration due to the lowering. The second reason is that many usersprefer the image quality to the sound quality, in general.

The method of lowering the bit rate of audio is not limited toparticular one; for example, as fourth value B4 of the bit rate of imageis computed (as indicated with line 152 shown in FIG. 8), the bit rateof audio may be gradually (continuously) lowered in accordance with thelength of total time Tx. However, for the following two reasons, amethod of lowering the audio bit rate is preferred in which the bit rateis lowered, over a certain point (time T1), from second fixed value B2to third fixed value B3 in a discontinuous manner, as described above.The first reason is the same as the above-mentioned first reason. Thesecond reason, or the third reason if this is the continuation from theabove-mentioned first and second reasons, is that second value B2 itselfwhich is the highest audio bit rate value is fairly lower than the bitrate of image, so that the gradual lowering of the audio bit rate doesnot significantly contribute to the saving of the capacity in which thedata is written to the DVD 14.

If total time Tx is longer than time T2, then the third setting in whichthe image bit rate is lowered is provided.

The method of lowering the image bit rate is not limited in particular;for example, a method may be used in which, as with the audio bit rate,the bit rate is lowered over a certain point in a discontinuous manner.However, for the reasons that are reverse to those for the audio bitrate, the method is preferred in which the bit rate is gradually(continuously) lowered in accordance with the length of total time Tx asfourth value B4 is computed (in accordance with line 152 shown in FIG.8) as described above. Namely, as compared with the audio bit rate, thedeterioration in image quality due to the lowering of the bit rate iseasily transmitted to the user (namely, the deterioration in imagequality is often acutely detected by the human visual sense), which isthe fourth reason (reverse to the above-mentioned first reason). Thefifth reason (reverse to the above-mentioned third reason) is that firstvalue B1 which is the highest value of image is fairly high, so that thelowered bit rate of image significantly contributes to the saving of thecapacity of the dada to be written to the DVD 14.

Thus, the bit rate setting block 106 shown in FIG. 4 executes “bit ratesetting processing”, so that the following advantages are achieved.

Conventionally, when writing the video data (namely, the recorded dataof the digital video tape 13) taken with the DV 12 to a DVD, the usermanually computes total time Tx of the recorded data of the digitalvideo tape 13 (or manually has total time Tx computed by the PC),manually computes, from the obtained total time Tx, the bit rate for usein the case of writing the data to the DVD, manually registers theobtained bit rate into the PC, manually starts up the data acquisitionprogram of the PC to capture the recorded data of the digital video tape13 from the DV 12 into the PC, and, after starting up the dataacquisition program, manually starts up the DVD write program to writethe video data captured in the PC to the DVD with the registered bitrate (namely, the manually computed bit rate).

For the user to manually compute the bit rates, it is required to knowDVD standards, DV standards, various other standards, and theinformation accompanying thereto, and has high-level techniques tohandle these knowledge and information. In addition, it is still verydifficult even for those users who have these high-level knowledge andtechniques to compute the bit rates that satisfy desired image and audioqualities (generally, the highest image and audio qualities within arange of DVD capacity).

It is also practicable for the user to directly connect a device such asa DVD-R recorder to the DV 12 without using the PC, writing the videodata taken with the DV 12 (namely, the recorded data of the digitalvideo tape 13) to a DVD loaded on the DVD-R recorder. However, thispresents a problem that, because bit rates preset to the DVD-R recorderare used in this case, the video data is not always recorded to the DVDwith optimum bit rates (of image quality and sound quality).

Conversely, as described above, in the PC 11 (FIG. 2), the bit ratesetting block 106 is provided as one of the functions of the dataacquisition/DVD write block 91 (FIG. 4). Namely, without performing anyspecial operation (namely, by only connecting the DV 12 to the PC 11 andturning on the power to the DV 12 by the user), the optimum bit rateswith which the data (namely, the recorded data of the digital video tape13) is written to the DVD 14 are automatically set.

In other words, the PC 11 comprises checking means for checkingpredetermined time information of content data recorded in a firstformat; setting means for setting, on the basis of the content data timeinformation checked by the checking means, bits rates with which thecontent data is recorded from the information processing device to apredetermined removable recording medium; and recording control meansfor converting the format of the content data from the first format to asecond format and recording the converted content data to the recordingmedium with the bit rates set by the setting means.

Thus, the bit rate setting block 106 executes “bit rate settingprocessing”, thereby providing an advantage of solving theabove-mentioned problem associated with the bit rate setting of therelated-art techniques.

The following describes details of “digital video tape recorded dataacquisition processing” of this example that is executed by theacquisition block 105 (FIG. 4) with reference to FIGS. 10 and 11.

Referring to FIG. 10, there is shown a detail exemplary configuration ofthe acquisition block 105.

As shown in FIG. 10, the acquisition block 105 has an acquisition modeselection block 171 for checking the free capacity of the HDD 34 andselecting a mode of capturing the recorded data of the digital videotape 13 from the DV 12; a piecemeal acquisition block 172 for, if themode of acquiring the data in a divided manner is selected by theacquisition mode selection block 171, dividing the recorded data of thedigital video tape 13, sequentially capturing the divided data from theDV 12 in the DV format, and storing the captured data into a DV formatstorage enabled area 34-2 to be described later in the HDD 34; formatconversion block 173 for converting the format of the video data storedin the DV format storage enabled area 34-2 of the HDD 34 from DV formatto DVD format and storing the converted video data into a DVD formatstorage area 34-3 in the HDD 34; and a captured data deletion block 174for deleting the video data of DV format from the DV format storageenabled area 34-2 in the HDD 34.

The acquisition block 105 also has a batch acquisition block 175 for, ifa mode of selecting data in a bulk manner is selected by the acquisitionmode selection block 171, capturing in one lump the recorded data of thedigital video tape 13 from the DV 12 in DV format and storing thecaptured data into the DV format storage enabled area 34-2 in the HDD34; and an overwrite recording monitor block 176 for instructing thebulk acquisition block 175 (or the piecemeal acquisition block 172 asrequired) to stop the acquisition processing if the recorded data of thedigital video tape 13 to be captured is overwritten on old video dataand when the reproduction of the digital video tape 13 proceeds from therecorded data to be captured to the old video data.

Additionally, the acquisition block 105 has an unrecorded area monitorblock 177 for instructing the bulk acquisition block 175 (or thepiecemeal acquisition block 172 as required) to stop the acquisitionprocessing like the overwrite recording monitor block 176 and a tape endmonitor block 178. The unrecorded area monitor block 177 outputs a stopcommand if the unrecorded area continues longer than a certain period oftime during the reproduction of the digital video tape 13. The tape endmonitor block 178 outputs a stop command if the digital video tape 13has been reproduced up to its end.

The following describes the details of “digital video tape recorded dataacquisition processing” in this example with reference to FIG. 11.

First, in step S51, the acquisition mode selection block 171 checks thecapacity (hereafter referred to a free capacity) of the free area 34-1in the 34. In step S52, the acquisition mode selection block 171determines whether the data of all chapters to be written to the DVD canbe stored in the checked free capacity of the HDD 34.

To be more specific, in this example, acquisition mode selection block171 computes recording capacity Cd of the DVD 14 by multiplying totaltime Tx of the recorded data of the digital video tape 13 checked by thecheck block 104 (FIG. 4) in the processing of step s7 (FIG. 5) stored inthe checked contents/setting contents storage block 110 (FIG. 4) by thebit rate set by a bit rate setting block 106 (FIG. 4) and stored in thechecked contents/setting contents storage block 110 in the processing ofstep S8 (FIGS. 5 and 7) (namely, a sum of the image bit rate and theaudio bit rate specified in any one of the first through thirdsettings), for example. Namely, in FIG. 10, the capacity of the DVDformat storage area 34-3 in the free area 34-1 of the HDD 34 providesrecording capacity Cd of the DVD 14.

Next, the acquisition mode selection block 171 computes capacity Ch2(hereafter referred to as capture capacity Ch2) in which the recordeddata of the digital video tape 13 can be temporarily stored in DV formatinto the HDD 34 by subtracting computed recording capacity Cd of the DVD14 from free capacity Ch1 of the HDD 34 checked in step S51. Namely, inFIG. 10, the capacity of the DV format storage enabled area 34-2 in thefree area 34-1 of the HDD 34 provides capture capacity Ch2.

If computed capture capacity Ch2 is greater than the data amount of allchapters to be written to the DVD 14 (this data amount is the amount ofthe recorded data of the digital video tape 13 in DV format to becaptured; in this example, this data amount is computed by theacquisition mode selection block 171 itself), then it is determined instep S52 that the data of all chapters to be written to the DVD 14 isstored in the free capacity of the HDD 34.

When the acquisition mode selection block 171 advances its processing tostep S53, the batch acquisition block 175 obtains the recorded data ofthe digital video tape 13 in DV format in a lump (all of the recordeddata) from the DV 12 via the i.LINK 45 (FIG. 2) and temporarily storesthe acquired data into the DV format storage enabled area 34-2 of theHDD 34 in step S53. When the acquisition processing by the batchacquisition block 175 has been completed, the format conversion block173 converts the video data of DV format stored in the DV format storageenabled area 34-2 of the HDD 34 from DV format to DVD format and storesthe converted video data into the DVD format storage area 34-3 of theHDD 34. The captured data deletion block 174 deletes the video data ofDV format from the DV format storage enabled area 34-2 of the HDD 34.

In what follows, the above-mentioned processing of step S53 will bereferred to as “automatic acquisition processing”. It should be notedthat the detail of “automatic acquisition processing” will be describedlater with reference to the flowcharts shown in FIGS. 17 and 18.

To be more specific, if the acquisition mode selection block 171determines that the data of all chapters to be written to the DVD can bestored in the free capacity of the HDD in the processing of step S52,then the acquisition mode selection block 171 selects a modecorresponding to “automatic acquisition processing” to be mainlyexecuted by the batch acquisition block 175 as an acquisition mode.

On the other hand, if capture capacity Ch2 (namely, capacity Ch2 of theDV format storage enabled area 34-2 of the HDD 34) is smaller than thedata amount of the data (the recorded data of the digital video tape 13of DV format to be captured) of all chapters to be written to the DVD14, then it is determined in step S52 that the data of all chapters tobe written to the DVD 14 cannot be stored in the free capacity of theHDD 34, upon which the processing operations of steps S54 through S62will be executed. It should be noted that the processing operations ofsteps S54 through S62 are referred to as “batch capture processing”against above-mentioned “automatic acquisition processing”.

In other words, a first data amount of the content data in the firstformat (in this example, the data amount of “the data of all chapters tobe written to the DVD 14” described in step S52 in FIG. 11, namely thedata amount of the recorded data of the digital video tape 13 in DVformat (there is a corresponding description herein), for example)) anda second data amount of the content data in the second format (in thisexample, the data amount of the recorded data of the digital video tape13 in DVD format, namely the data amount equivalent to the capacity(recording capacity Cd of the DVD 14) of the DVD format storage area34-3 in the free area 34-1 of the HDD 34 shown in FIG. 10, for example)are computed, the computed first data amount and the computed seconddata amount are added together to compute a first threshold value, andit is determined in step S52 whether the free capacity of the HDD (inthis example, capacity Ch1 of the free area 34-1 of the HDD 34 shown inFIG. 10 for example) is smaller than the computed first threshold value,thereby determining whether the data of all chapters to be written tothe DVD can be stored in the free capacity of the HDD.

Namely, if the data of all chapters to be written to the DVD is foundunable to be stored in the free capacity of the HDD in step S52, thenthe acquisition mode selection block 171 selects a mode corresponding to“batch capture processing” to be mainly executed by the piecemealacquisition block 172, as an acquisition mode.

To be more specific, when “batch capture processing” is selected, thepiecemeal acquisition block 172 computes a maximum data amount to becaptured in a lump (hereafter referred to simply as a maximum dataamount) in accordance with the free capacity of the HDD 34 (capturecapacity Ch2 of the DV format storage enabled area 34-2) in step S54.Namely, the maximum data amount is set below capture amount Ch2 of theDV format storage enabled area 34-2.

Next, in step S55, the piecemeal acquisition block 172 determineswhether there is any chapter that has a data amount greater than themaximum data amount computed in step S54 among the chapters (namely allchapters forming the recorded data of the digital video tape 13) listedin the chapter list checked by the check block 104 (FIG. 4) and storedin the checked contents/setting contents storage block 110 (FIG. 4) instep S7 (FIG. 5).

If a chapter having a data amount greater than the maximum data amountis found in step S55, then the piecemeal acquisition block 172 dividesthe chapter having a data amount greater than the maximum data amountinto a plurality of sections each having a data amount smaller than themaximum data amount in step S56.

To be more specific, it is supposed that the processing of step S7 (FIG.5) found that a part of the recording contents of the digital video tape13 is formed by a chapter 181 having a data amount smaller than themaximum data amount, a chapter 182 having a data amount greater than themaximum data amount, and a chapter 183 having a data mount smaller thanthe maximum data amount, as it shows in FIG. 12 for example. In otherwords, it is supposed that the chapters 181 through 183 be included inthe chapter list stored in the checked contents/setting contents storageblock 110 (FIG. 4). It should be noted that data 191 through data 196are unrecognized data.

In this case, the chapter 182 having a data amount greater than themaximum data amount is found in step S55 (FIG. 11). In step S56 (FIG.11), the chapter 182 having a data amount greater than the maximum dataamount is divided into a section 182-1 and a section 182-2 each having apredetermined data amount smaller than the maximum data amount as shownin FIG. 13.

In this case, the chapter list stored in the checked contents/settingcontents storage block 110 (FIG. 4) is also updated. Namely, the chapterinformation of the chapter 182 is deleted and the section information(namely, the information corresponding to the chapter information) ofthe section 182-1 and the section 182-2 is added to the position fromwhich the chapter information of the chapter 182 has been deleted.

Because unrecognized data 193 exits before the section 182-1 at thismoment, the above-mentioned ambiguous flag is attached to the startframe of the section 182-1 (the ambiguous flag attached to the startframe of the chapter 182 before being divided is left as it is); butthere is no unrecognized data after the section 182-1 (namely, the lastframe of the section 182-1 is continuous to the start frame of thesection 182-2), so that no ambiguous flag is attached to the last frameof the section 182-1. Likewise, no ambiguous flag is attached to thestart frame of the section 182-2, but the ambiguous flag is attached tothe last frame of the section 182-2 (the ambiguous flag attached to thelast frame of the chapter 182 before being divided is left as it is).

It should be noted that, in the example shown in FIG. 13, one chapter isdivided into two sections; however, the number of sections obtained fromone chapter is not limited to any particular value as long as their dataamounts are smaller than the maximum data amount computed in step S54.

On the other hand, if no chapter having a data amount greater than themaximum data amount is found in step S55 shown in FIG. 11, then theprocessing goes to step S57 skipping step S56.

If no chapter having a data amount greater than the -maximum data amountis found in step S55 or if the processing of step S56 has been ended,then, in step S57, the piecemeal acquisition block 172 shown in FIG. 10obtains the data of a chapter to be acquired next or the data of asection to be acquired next from the DV 12 through the i.LINK 45 (FIG.2) on the basis of the chapter list stored in the checkedcontents/setting contents storage block 110 (FIG. 4) and stores theacquired data into the DV format storage enabled area 34-2 of the HDD34.

To be more specific, it is supposed that the piecemeal acquisition block172 recognize a chapter formed by frames 53 through 68 as a chapter tobe acquired next, for example. It is also supposed that the recordedcontents of the digital video tape 13 for the recognized chapter be asection 201 formed by frames 50 through 70 as shown in FIG. 14, forexample.

In this case, data 201-1 and data 201-3 of the section 201 areunrecognized data, so that the start frame (having frame number 53) andthe end frame (having frame number 68) recognized by the check block 104(FIG. 4) are each attached with an ambiguous flag.

Therefore, upon detection of the ambiguous flag of the start frame, thepiecemeal acquisition block 172 requests the DV control block 103 (FIG.4) to execute rewind reproduction (for example, −1 times speedreproduction). In response to this request, the DV control block 103generates a control signal directing “rewind reproduction” and transmitsthe control signal to the DV 12 via the i.LINK 45 (FIG. 2), therebycontrolling the DV 12 to execute the rewind reproduction of the digitalvideo tape 13.

When the rewind reproduction of the digital video tape 13 has beenexecuted (when the head 75 (FIG. 3) of the DV 12 has relatively movedfrom the position shown in FIG. 14 to the position indicated by dashedarrow shown in FIG. 15), the reproduced video signals corresponding tothe frames of frame numbers which are turned back one by one from framenumber 53 are sequentially transmitted from the DV 12.

So, the piecemeal acquisition block 172 obtains these reproduced videosignals via the i.LINK 45 (FIG. 2) to check each frame for recordingstart point information. Upon detection of recording start pointinformation, the piecemeal acquisition block 172 updates the frameincluding the detected recording start point information (in this case(in the example shown in FIG. 15), the frame of frame number 50) to thestart frame of a chapter to be acquired next (namely, updates thechapter list stored in the checked contents/setting contents storageblock 110).

Next, the piecemeal acquisition block 172 requests the DV control block103 (FIG. 4) to reproduce the digital video tape 13 from the updatedstart frame (having number 50) at normal speed. In response to thisrequest, the DV control block 103 generates a control signal fordirecting “normal speed (times 1) reproduction” and transmits thecontrol signal to the DV 12 via the i.LINK 45 (FIG. 2), thereby makingthe DV 12 execute the normal speed reproduction of the digital videotape 13.

When the digital video tape 13 has been reproduced at normal speed (whenthe head 75 (FIG. 3) of the DV 12 has relatively moved to the positionindicated by dashed arrow shown in FIG. 16), reproduced video signalscorresponding to the frames having numbers from 50 (actually, a framenumber several frames before frame 50) to subsequent frames one by one,are transmitted from the DV 12.

So, the piecemeal acquisition block 172 starts acquiring the reproducedvideo signals via the i.LINK 45 (FIG. 2), thereby starting, in this case(namely, in the example shown in FIG. 16), the processing of storing thevideo data starting with the frame of frame number 50 into the DV formatstorage enabled area 34-2 of the HDD 34. Upon detection of an ambiguousflag (in this case, in the example shown in FIG. 16, upon detection ofthe frame having frame number 68), the piecemeal acquisition block 172stores the frames inclusive of the frame having the next recording endpoint information (the frame immediately before the frame havingrecording start point information, namely the frame having frame number70 in this case (namely, in the example shown in FIG. 16)) into the DVformat storage enabled area 34-2 of the HDD 34, stops its acquisitionprocessing, and requests the DV control block 103 (FIG. 4) to stop thenormal speed reproduction. In response to this request, the DV controlblock 103 generates a control signal for directing “stop” and transmitsthis control signal to the DV 12 via the i.LINK 45 (FIG. 2), therebymaking the DV 12 stop the normal speed reproduction of the digital videotape 13.

It should be noted that, if no ambiguous flag is found, theabove-mentioned rewind processing and so on are not executed; instead,the start frame through the end frame included in the chapter list arereproduced and stored in the PC 11.

Thus, the piecemeal acquisition block 172 can acquire all the recordedcontents of the digital video tape 13 from the DV 12 by theabove-mentioned method (the method shown in FIGS. 14 through 16).

Namely, for example, if the piecemeal acquisition block 172 simplyattempts to acquire the data of the section 201 shown in FIG. 16 that isthe actual recorded contents of the digital video tape 13 as the chapterdata on the basis of the chapter list stored in the checkedcontents/setting contents storage block 110 (FIG. 4), the piecemealacquisition block 172 can acquire only the data 201-2 corresponding tothe chapter detected by scan processing of step S7 (FIG. 5) of thesection 201 (cannot acquire unrecognized data 201-1 and unrecognizeddada 201-3) because only data 201-2 was detected by this scanprocessing.

On the other hand, the piecemeal acquisition block 172 of this exampleexecutes the data acquisition processing by use of the above-mentionedmethod (shown in FIGS. 14 through 16), so that the piecemeal acquisitionblock 172 can surely acquire the all data of the section 201 as data 204of the chapter.

Meanwhile, the chapter data stored in the DV format storage enabled area34-2 of the HDD 34 is in DV format. In DV format, one frame is equal to120000 bytes and the frame rate is 29.97 frames/second, so that a dataamount for one second of the digital video tape 13 is 3596400bytes/second (=120000 bytes/frame*29.97 frames/second), which is aslarge as 215784000 bytes (or 215.79 MB) in minute equivalent.

On the other hand, in DVD format, namely MPEG-2 format in this example,the image bit rate is a maximum of 8 Mbps (maximum first value set bythe bit rate setting block 106 (FIG. 4) as described above, so that thedata amount for one minute is 60 MB at a maximum, namely about less than1/3.4 of DV format.

Therefore, in step S58 shown in FIG. 11, the format conversion block 173converts the data having DV format (the data of chapter or the data ofsection) acquired by the piecemeal acquisition block 172 in step S57 andstored in the DV format storage enabled area 34-2 of the HDD 34 into thedata having DVD format and stores the converted data into the DVD formatstorage area 34-3 of the HDD 34. Next, in step S59, the captured datadeletion block 174 deletes the data having DV format (namely, the datahaving DV format corresponding to the data having DVD format stored inthe DVD format storage area 34-3 of the HDD 34 by the format conversionblock 173 in step S58) acquired by the piecemeal acquisition block 172in step S57 and stored in the DV format storage enabled area 34-2 of theHDD 34.

In step S60, the format conversion block 173 determines whether the dataconverted in step S58 into DVD format and stored in the DVD formatstorage area 34-3 of the HDD 34 includes the recording end point(information).

Namely, if the video data stored in the DVD format storage area 34-3 ofthe HDD 34 in step S58 is the data of other than the last section of thesections provided in step S56, it indicates that this video data has noframe that includes recording end point information, so that the storeddata is found not including a recording end point in step S60, uponwhich the processing goes to step S62.

On the other hand, if the video data stored in the DVD format storagearea 34-3 of the HDD 34 in step S58 is found to be the data of the lastsection of the sections provided in step S56 or the data of the chapternot divided into sections, then it is determined in step S60 that the arecording end point is included in the stored data, upon which theformat conversion block 173 sets the chapter in step S61.

To be more specific, if the video data stored in the DVD format storagearea 34-3 of the HDD 34 is found to be the data of the last section ofthe sections obtained in step S56, then the format conversion block 173combines the other sections stored in the DVD format storage area 34-3of the HDD 34 with that last section, stores the combined sections intothe DVD format storage area 34-3 of the HDD 34 (or writes these sectionsover those stored therein) as the chapter data, and updates the chapterlist stored in the checked contents/setting contents storage block 110(FIG. 4).

If the data stored in the DVD format storage area 34-3 of the HDD 34 isfound to be the data of a chapter not divided, then the formatconversion block 173 simply updates the chapter list stored in thechecked contents/setting contents storage block 110 (FIG. 4). Forexample, if the data stored in the DVD format storage area 34-3 of theHDD 34 is data 204 of the chapter shown in FIG. 16, the frame number ofthe start frame in the chapter list has been updated from 53 to 50 instep S57 as described above. However, because the frame number of thelast frame in the chapter list is still 68, it is updated to 70 in stepS61.

Referring to FIG. 11 again, if the stored data is found not including arecording end point or the processing of step S61 has ended, thepiecemeal acquisition block 172 determines in step S62 whether the dataof all chapters to be written to the DVD 14 (namely, the data of allchapters included in the chapter list) have been acquired from the DV12.

If the data of all chapters to be written to the DVD 14 are found notacquired from the DV 12 in step S62, the processing returns to step S57to repeat itself therefrom. Thai is, the data of a chapter to beacquired next or the data of a section to be acquired next is capturedin DV format, the captured data is stored in the DV format storageenabled area 34-2 of the HDD 34, the stored data is converted from DVformat to DVD format, the converted data is stored in the DVD formatstorage area 34-3 of the HDD 34, and the data having DV format stored inthe DV format storage enabled area 34-2 of the HDD 34 is deleted.

Then, when the data of the last chapter has been stored in the DVDformat storage area 34-3 of the HDD 34 by repeating the above-mentionedprocessing operations of steps S57 through S62, it is determined thatthe data of all chapters to be written to the DVD 14 have been acquiredfrom the DV 12, upon which this processing comes to an end.

As described above, because the acquisition block 105 (FIGS. 4 and 10)can execute “batch capture processing” of “digital video tape recordeddata acquisition processing”, the following advantages are provided.

Namely, the following two methods are known for capturing video datafrom the digital video tape 13 loaded on the DV 12 into the PC and soon.

In the first method, the user operates the DV 12 to move the digitalvideo tape 13 to a capture start position desired by the user, and thedata is captured from the digital video tape 13 into the PC, upon whichthe reproduction of the digital video tape 13 is started by the DV 12,followed by the stop of the capture processing upon capturing of thenecessary portion of the digital video tape 13, thereby executing theprocessing of stopping the digital video tape 13.

In the second method, the user operates the DV 12 to move the digitalvideo tape 13 to a capture start position desired by the user, thiscapture start position is registered in the PC, the user operates the DV12 again to move the digital video tape 13 to a capture stop position,and this capture stop position is registered in the PC, therebyexecuting the capture processing.

However, with the first method, the user must manually divide a range ofvideo data to be captured while checking the free capacity of anauxiliary storage unit (the HDD of the PC for example) during datacapture processing and therefore it is difficult for the user todetermine the range (or length) in which to divide the video data. Inaddition, with the first method, it is very difficult to control theconnection between the sections of video data obtained by dividing thevideo data. Even if control is executed over the connection between thesections of video data, the sections of video data combined by thisconnection prevent problems of overlapping and dropping of data.

The second method is easier than the first method in control of theconnection between the sections. However, it is also difficult with thesecond method to set the range (or length) in which to divide video datainto sections. In addition, the specification of the division of videodata at every division point is a time-consuming job.

In contrast, the PC 11 (FIG. 2) according to the invention can execute“batch capture processing” as one of the functions of the dataacquisition/DVD write block 91 (FIG. 4).

To be more specific, if it is impossible to acquire the data (namely,the recorded data of the digital video tape 13) to be written to the DVD14 in a lump, subsequent processing is automatically executed toautomatically capture the recorded data of the digital video tape 13into the PC 11 without a special user intervention (namely, the user mayonly connect the DV 12 to the PC 11 and turns on the power to the DV12).

In other words, an information processing apparatus for capturingcontent data recorded in a first format, comprising: storage means forstoring content data; computation means for computing a free capacity ofthe storage means; acquisition means for dividing the content data intoa plurality of data sections on the basis of the free capacity of thestorage means computed by the computation means, acquiring apredetermined first data section among the plurality of data sections,and storing the acquired predetermined first data section into thestorage means; conversion means for converting the format of the firstdata section acquired by the acquisition means from the first format toa second format, generating a second data section smaller in data amountthan the first data section, and storing the generated second datasection into the storage means; and delating means for deleting, whenthe generated second data section obtained by converting the format ofthe first data section by the conversion means has been stored in thestorage means, the first data section from the storage means before athird data section different from the first data section is acquired bythe acquisition means from among the plurality of data sections formingthe content data.

Namely, the recorded data of the digital video tape 13 is divided into aplurality of data sections (or a plurality of chapter data or sectiondata), these data sections are sequentially acquired, the acquired datasections are temporarily stored in the DV format storage enabled area34-2 of the HDD 34, the format of the stored data sections is convertedto DVD format, the converted data sections are stored in the DVD formatstorage area 34-3 of the HDD 34, and then the data sections having DVformat are deleted from the DV format storage enabled area 34-2 of theHDD 34.

Thus, if the free capacity of the HDD 34 is small and it is thereforeimpossible to capture the recorded data of the digital video tape 13(namely, the data to be written to the DVD 14) cannot be captured in alump, all the recorded data of the digital video tape 13 can beeventually captured. That is, the user can capture all of the datarecorded to the digital video tape 13 into the PC 11 without drop and ina short time without having to worry about the free capacity of theauxiliary storage unit (namely, the HDD 34). In addition, if such “batchcapture processing” is executed, no such errors as a duplicate captureof a part of the data and a drop of data will occur, thereby providingthe secure and correct capture of all the data recorded to the digitalvideo tape 13.

Consequently, the execution of “batch capture processing” by theacquisition block 105 solves the above-mentioned problems involved inrelated-art technologies in capturing the recorded data of the digitalvideo tape 13 from the DV 12 into the PC and so on.

In the above, “batch capture processing (the processing of steps S54through S62) of the “digital video tape recorded data acquisitionprocessing” has been described with reference to the flowchart shown inFIG. 11. The following describes “automatic acquisition processing” of“digital video tape recorded data acquisition processing”.

As described above, if the data of all chapters to be written to the DVD14 are found able to be stored in the free capacity of the HDD 34 instep S52, then “automatic acquisition processing” is executed in stepS53.

The details of “automatic acquisition processing” in this example areshown in the flowcharts of FIGS. 17 and 18. The following describes thedetails of “automatic acquisition processing” in this example withreference to the flowcharts of FIGS. 17 and 18.

First, in step S81 shown in FIG. 17, the batch acquisition block 175shown in FIG. 10 determines whether or not the acquisition of data fromthe capture start position (namely, the start frame of the start chapterin the chapter list stored in the checked contents/setting contentsstorage block 110) can be made. Namely, the batch acquisition block 175determines whether or not the current position of the digital video tape13 loaded on the DV 12 matches the capture start position (actually, aposition slightly before the capture start position).

If the acquisition of data from the capture start position is foundimpossible (or not possible) in step S81, then the batch acquisitionblock 175 feeds fast forward or rewinds the digital video tape 13 instep S82 on the basis of the capture start position.

Namely, if the current position of the digital video tape 13 is beforethe capture start position, the batch acquisition block 175 requests theDV control block 103 (FIG. 4) to fast forward feed the digital videotape 13 and, if the current position is after the capture startposition, the batch acquisition block 175 requests the DV control block103 to rewind the digital video tape 13. In response to this request,the DV control block 103 generates a control signal directing “fastforward” or “rewind” and transmits the generated control signal to theDV 12 via the i.LINK 45 (FIG. 2), thereby controlling the DV 12 to fastforward feed or rewind the digital video tape 13.

To be more specific, in capturing the recorded data recorded from thestart of the digital video tape 13, the batch acquisition block 175requests the DV control block 103 to rewind the digital video tape 13 toits start position. In response to this request, the DV control block103 generates a control signal for directing “rewind” and transmits thegenerated control signal to the DV 12 via the i.LINK 45, therebycontrolling the DV 12 to rewind the digital video tape 13.

Next, upon detection that the digital video tape 13 has been rewound toits start position, the batch acquisition block 175 starts data capturein step S83. In step S84, the digital video tape 13 is reproduced.

To be more specific, the batch acquisition block 175 requests the DVcontrol block 103 (FIG. 4) for the reproduction at normal speed. Inresponse to this request, the DV control block 103 generates a controlsignal for directing “normal speed reproduction” and transmits thecontrol signal to the DV 12 via the i.LINK 45 (FIG. 2), therebycontrolling the DV 12 to reproduce the digital video tape 13 at normalspeed. When the normal speed reproduction of the digital video tape 13gets started, reproduced video data (namely, reproduced video signals)are sequentially transmitted, the video data corresponding to thecapture start position first.

So, the batch acquisition block 175 sequentially acquires the video datavia the i.LINK 45 (FIG. 2) and stores the acquired video data into theDV format storage enabled area 34-2 of the HDD 34.

In step S85, the batch acquisition block 175 determines whether therecording start point has been detected or not.

If the recording start point is found detected in step S85, namely, ifthe frame having recording start point information has been acquired,then the batch acquisition block 175 gets a recording start time(namely, the video taking time information (year, month, day, hour,minute, and second)) information included in that frame) in step S86.

If no recording start point is found detected (or if the recording starttime is found not detected) in step S85 or if the processing of step S86has ended, the batch acquisition block 175 determines in step S87whether a recording end point has been detected or not.

If the recording end point is found detected in step S87, namely, if theframe having recording end point information has been acquired, then thebatch acquisition block 175 gets a recording end time (namely, the videotaking time information (year, month, day, hour, minute, and second))information included in that frame) in step S88, thereby setting thechapter.

Namely, as described above, the chapter included in the chapter liststored in the checked contents/setting contents storage block 110 (FIG.4) is formed only the frames scanned by the fast forward reproduction instep S7 (FIG. 5) among all frames included in the recorded data of thedigital video tape 13 (refer to FIG. 6 for example). Therefore, in theprocessing operations of steps S85 through S88, the batch acquisitionblock 175 detects the actual recording start point and the recording endpoint that appears next, sets the sections between these points as achapter, and generates the chapter information including the recordingstart time and recording end time of that chapter, thereby updating thechapter list stored in the checked contents/setting contents storageblock 110 (FIG. 4).

In step S89 shown in FIG. 18, the overwrite recording monitor block 176determines whether or not the time of the frame acquired just now by thebatch acquisition block 175 (namely, the video taking time information(year, month, day, hour, minute, and second) included in the first framejust reproduced by the DV 12) is earlier than the time of the frameacquired immediately before (namely, the video taking time information(year, month, day, hour, minute, and second) included in the secondframe reproduced by the DV 12 immediately before the first frame).

If the time of the frame acquired just now by the batch acquisitionblock 175 is earlier than the time of the frame acquired immediatelybefore, it indicates that the first video data formed by the framessubsequent to the frame acquired just now and the second video dataformed by the frames preceding the frame immediately before are notdirectly related with each other, but the first video data precedes thesecond video data in time. Namely, it indicates that the second data(namely, the video data to be acquired this time) has been newly writtenover the first video data already recorded.

Therefore, if, in step S89, the time of the frame acquired just now isfound by the batch acquisition block 175 to be earlier than the time ofthe frame acquired immediately before; the batch acquisition block 175determines that the reproduction of the second video data (namely, thetarget data of the acquisition processing) acquired so far had ended,thereby directing the batch acquisition block 175 to stop itsacquisition processing.

In response to this direction, the batch acquisition block 175 stopsacquiring the data in step S92 and stops the digital video tape 13 instep S93.

Namely, the batch acquisition block 175 requests the DV control block103 (FIG. 4) to stop normal-speed reproduction. In response to thisrequest, the DV control block 103 generates a control signal fordirecting “stop” and transmits the control signal to the DV 12 via thei.LINK 45 (FIG. 2), thereby controlling the DV 12 to stop the digitalvideo tape 13.

Thus, the processing by the overwrite recording monitor block 176 allowsthe acquisition block 105 to securely acquire only the second video dataalso from the digital video tape 13 written with the second video datato be acquired this time over the first video data recorded in the past.

On the other hand, if the batch acquisition block 175 determines thatthe time of the frame acquired just now is not earlier than the time ofthe frame acquired immediately before, then the overwrite recordingmonitor block 176 determines that the second video tape acquired so far(namely, the target of acquisition) has not yet ended. Then, theunrecorded area monitor block 177 determines in step S90 whether anunrecorded area continues for a certain period of time.

Namely, if an unrecorded area has continued for a certain period of time(namely, if an unrecorded area is found continuing for a certain periodof time in step S90), then the unrecorded area monitor block 177 regardsthat the second video data acquired so far (namely, the target ofacquisition) is not recorded in the subsequent portions (regards thatthe reproduction of the second video data has ended), thereby directingthe batch acquisition block 175 to stop its acquisition processing.

In response to the stop specification, the batch acquisition block 175stops the data acquisition in step S92 and stops the digital video tape13 in step S93.

Thus, the processing by the unrecorded area monitor block 177 allows theacquisition block 105 to surely acquire only the second video data thatis the target of acquisition this time without reproducing the digitalvideo tape 13 to its end, even if the second video data is not recordedup to the tape end. Consequently, this configuration can shorten thecapture time.

On the other hand, if an unrecorded area is found not continuing for acertain period of time in step S90, then the unrecorded area monitorblock 177 determines that the second video data (namely, the target ofacquisition) captured so far has not ended. Then, the tape end monitorblock 178 determines in step S91 whether or not the second video datahas been reproduced to the end of the digital video tape 13.

If the second video data is found not reproduced to the end of thedigital video tape 13 in sep S91, then the processing returns to stepS85 (FIG. 17) to repeat the itself therefrom. Namely, the dataacquisition processing by the batch acquisition block 175 is continueduntil it is determined that the second video data (namely, the target ofacquisition) acquired so far ends.

On the other hand, if the second video data is found reproduced up tothe end of the digital video tape 13, then the batch acquisition block175 is directed to stop its acquisition processing.

In response to this stop specification, the batch acquisition block 175stops the data acquisition in step S92 and stops the digital video tape13 in step S93.

Thus, when the data acquisition processing by the batch acquisitionblock 175 has been completed (namely, when the processing of step S93comes to an end), the format conversion block 173 converts, in step S94,the format of the video data having DV format acquired by the batchacquisition block 175 and stored in the DV format storage enabled area34-2 into DVD format (in this example, MPEG-2 format) and stores theconverted video data into the DVD format storage area 34-3. In step S95,the captured data deletion block 174 deletes the data having DV formatacquired by the batch acquisition block 175 and stored in the DV formatstorage enabled area 34-2, thereby returning its processing.

As described above, because the acquisition block 105 can execute“automatic acquisition processing” of “digital video tape recorded dataacquisition processing”, the following advantages are attained.

Namely, as described with respect to the advantages of “batch captureprocessing”, the following two methods are known in which video data iscaptured from the digital video tape 13 loaded on the DV 12 into the PCand so on.

In the first method, the user operates the DV 12 to move the digitalvideo tape 13 to a capture start position desired by the user, and thedata is captured from the digital video tape 13 into the PC, upon whichthe reproduction of the digital video tape 13 is started by the DV 12,followed by the stop of the capture processing upon capturing of thenecessary portion of the digital video tape 13, thereby executing theprocessing of stopping the digital video tape 13.

In the second method, the user operates the DV 12 to move the digitalvideo tape 13 to a capture start position desired by the user, thiscapture start position is registered in the PC, the user operates the DV12 again to move the digital video tape 13 to a capture stop position,and this capture stop position is registered in the PC, therebyexecuting the capture processing.

However, the first method involves a problem that the user must manuallyoperate the DV 12 to execute rewind, stop, and reproduction of thedigital video tape 13, so that, while the data recorded to the digitalvideo tape 13 is being captured into the PC, the user must monitor thevideo being captured.

Obviously, the user can capture video data from the digital video tape13 into the PC until the tape end is reached without monitoring. In thiscase, however, if the second video data to be captured this time iswritten over the first video data recorded in the past on the digitalvideo tape 13, problems occur that not only the second video datadesired by the user but also the first video data not desired by theuser (namely, the video data unnecessary for the user) are captured fromthe digital video tape 13 and, in the case of a digital video tape notrecorded up to its end, an unrecorded area (namely, an area having nodata) is also captured, thereby making the capture time longer thannecessary.

The second method also involves a problem that moving the digital videotape 13 to capture start position or end position and its confirmationand registration require user manual operations (namely, the user mustmanually operate the DV 12), consequently taking much time.

In contrast, the PC 11 (FIGS. 1 and 2) according to the invention canexecute “automatic acquisition processing” as one of the functions ofthe data acquisition/DVD write block 91 (FIG. 4). Namely, even if thedata recorded to the digital video tape 13 is in any state, only thevideo data desired by the user can be automatically captured and, whenthe capture has been completed, the capture processing itself isautomatically stopped without any special user intervention (namely, bysimply connecting the DV 12 to the PC 11 and tuning on the power to theDV 12).

In other words, the PC 11 comprises: acquisition means for acquiringpredetermined content data formed by a plurality of frames to bereproduced by a predetermined reproduction device; and acquisition stopcontrol means for monitoring a recording time at which each of theplurality of frames was recorded in the time information included ineach frame to be reproduced by the reproduction device and, if therecording time of a first frame monitored this time is earlier than therecording time of a second frame monitored before the first frame,executing control so as to stop the acquisition of the content data bythe acquisition means.

Namely, even if the second video data to be captured this time iswritten over the first video data (namely, the video data not desired bythe user) recorded in the past, only the second video data which is thetarget of acquisition can be surely captured without capturing the pastfirst video data.

The PC 11 also includes: acquisition means for acquiring predeterminedcontent data to be reproduced by a predetermined reproduction device;and acquisition stop control means for monitoring the contents of thereproduction executed by the reproduction device and, if recorded dataof the content data is not reproduced for more than a predeterminedperiod of time, executing control so as to stop the acquisition of thecontent data by the acquisition means.

Thus, by executing “automatic acquisition processing”, the acquisitionblock 105 provides an advantage of solving the above-mentioned problemsinvolved in the related-art configuration for capturing the recordeddata of the digital video tape 13 from the DV 12 into the PC and so on.

It should be noted that, also in “batch capture processing”, insertionof steps S89 through S91 shown in FIG. 18 in place of step S62 shown inFIG. 11 brings out the same advantages as those of “automaticacquisition processing” described above. In this case, if any of theprocessing operations of steps S89 through S91 is determined YES, thenthe processing is returned. If the decision is NO in step S91, theprocessing returns to step S57 to repeat itself therefrom. In otherwords, as indicated with a dashed arrow shown in FIG. 10, each of theoverwrite recording monitor block 176, the unrecorded area monitor block177, and tape end monitor block 178 can output a stop direction not onlyto the batch acquisition block 175 but also to the piecemeal acquisitionblock 172.

The following describes the details of “chapter registration processing”of this example with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. 19.

First, in step S111, the menu creation block 107 shown in FIG. 4 selectsa specified time. For the specified time, a time set by the user isselected. The user can specify any desired time; in this example, thetime is selected from 10 minutes, 30 minutes, and one day (24 hours) forexample for the sake of description. The details of the specified timewill be described later.

In step S112, the menu creation block 107 sets the target chapter to thefirst chapter (namely, the start chapter) of all chapters (namely, allchapters forming the recorded data of the digital video tape 13 acquiredin step S9) included in the chapter list updated in step S9 (FIG. 5).

It should be noted that, in the description of “chapter registrationprocessing”, the chapter to be processed is referred to as a targetchapter to make distinction from other chapters.

In step S113, the menu creation block 107 determines whether a timeinterval between the recording start time of the chapter registeredimmediately before in the chapter menu (namely, the video taking timeinformation (year, month, day, hour, minute, and second) included in thestart frame of the chapter registered in step S114 immediately beforethat point of time) and the recording start time of the target chapter(namely, the video taking time information (year, month, day, hour,minute, and second) included in the start frame of the target chapter)is longer than the specified time selected in step S111.

If the time interval between the recording start time of the immediatelypreceding chapter registered in the chapter menu and the recording starttime of the target chapter is found longer than the specified time, thenthe menu creation block 107 registers the target chapter into thechapter menu in step S114. Namely, in this case, the target chapterbecomes a chapter to be displayed in the chapter menu.

On the other hand, if the time interval between the recording start timeof the immediately preceding chapter registered in the chapter menu andthe recording start time of the target chapter is found shorter than thespecified time (namely, not longer than the specified time), then themenu creation block 107 will not register the target chapter into thechapter menu (namely, does not execute the processing of step S114),advancing the processing to step S115.

In this case or if the processing of step S114 has ended, the menucreation block 107 determines whether or not the target chapter is thelast chapter or not in step S115.

If the target chapter is found not the last chapter in step S115, thenthe menu creation block 107 sets a following chapter to the targetchapter in step S116, upon which the processing is returned to step S113to repeat itself therefrom.

Namely, decision is made for each of all chapters included in thechapter list updated in step S9 (FIG. 5) (namely, all chapters formingthe recorded data of the digital video tape 13 acquired in step S9)whether or not the condition of step S113 is satisfied. Each of thosechapters that satisfy the condition of step S113 is registered in thechapter menu (namely, registered as a chapter to be displayed in thechapter menu).

When the last chapter becomes a target chapter and it is determinedwhether or not to be registered in the chapter menu (namely, when theprocessing of step S113 and, as required, the processing of S114 areexecuted), then the target chapter is found to be the last chapter instep S115, upon which the processing returns.

The following describes specific examples of “chapter registrationprocessing” with reference to FIGS. 20 through 22.

Namely, as described above, the specified time is variable and, in thisexample, selected from 10 minutes, 30 minutes, and one day (24 hours).FIG. 20 shows an example in which the specified time is 10 minutes, FIG.21 shows an example in which the specified time is 30 minutes, and FIG.22 shows an example in which the specified time is one day.

For example, it is supposed that video data is formed by chapters 211through 217 in this order (namely, the chapters are reproduced in thisorder), as shown in FIG. 20. It should be noted that a value indicatedin the upper left of each of the chapters 211 through 217 denotes a timeat which the recording of that chapter starts (the time of the startchapter of that frame) and a value indicated in the upper right denotesa time at which the recording of that chapter ends (the time of the lastchapter of that frame). For example, the time of the recording startpoint of the chapter 211 is 10:00 (10 o'clock) and the time of thenrecording end point is 10:08 (10 o'clock 8 minutes).

In this case, the chapter 211 is first set to the target chapter.Because, at that point time, no chapter listed in the chapter menu 221-1is registered, the chapter 211 is registered in the chapter menu 221-1in this case. Namely, the start chapter in the chapters forming videodata is automatically registered in the chapter menu.

Next, when the chapter 212 next to the chapter 211 is set to the targetchapter, the chapter 212 is registered in the chapter menu 221-1 becausea time interval (10 minutes) between time 10:00 at which the recordingof the chapter 211 registered immediately before into the DVD menu 221-1and time 10:10 at which the recording of the target chapter 212 startsis longer than the specified time (10 minutes).

Then, the similar processing is repeated, registering the chapter 213into the chapter list 221-1. At this time, when the chapter 214subsequent to the chapter 213 is set to the target chapter, the chapter214 is not registered in the chapter menu 221-1 because a time interval(4 minutes) between time 10:35 at which the recording of the chapter 213registered immediately before into the DVD menu 221-1 starts and time10:39 at which the recording of the target chapter 214 starts is shorterthan the specified time (10 minutes). Next, the chapter 215 is set tothe target chapter.

Subsequently, the above-mentioned processing continues up to the lastchapter 217, eventually generating the chapter menu 221-1 as shown inFIG. 20.

Namely, the chapter 215 is not registered in the chapter menu 221-1because a time interval (7 minutes) between time 10:35 at which therecording of the chapter 213 registered immediately before into the DVDmenu 221-1 starts and time 10:42 at which the recording of the chapter215 starts is shorter than the specified time (10 minutes).

On the other hand, the chapter 216 is registered in the chapter menu221-1 because a time interval (55 minutes) between time 10:35 at therecording of the 213 registered immediately before in the DVD menu 221-1starts and time 11:30 at which the recording of the chapter 216 startsis longer than the specified time (10 minutes).

Likewise, the chapter 217 is registered in the chapter menu 221-1because a time interval (30 minutes) between time 11:30 at which therecording of the chapter 216 registered immediately before into the DVDmenu 221-1 starts and time 12:00 at which the recording of the chapter216 starts is longer than the specified time (10 minutes).

As described above, the specified time is variable and therefore can beset to any time in step S111 (FIG. 19). For example, in FIG. 20, thespecified time is 10 minutes; if the specified time is set to 30minutes, then the chapter menu 221-2 as shown in FIG. 21 is generatedfrom the same video data as shown in FIG. 20 (namely, the video dataformed by chapters 211 through 217).

Comparing the chapter menu 221-1 shown in FIG. 20 with the chapter menu221-2 shown in FIG. 21 indicates that the chapter menu 212 registered inthe chapter menu 221-1 shown in FIG. 20 is not registered in the chaptermenu 221-2. This is because the time interval between time 10:00 atwhich the recording of the chapter 211 registered in the DVD menu 221-1immediately before starts and time 10:10 at which the recording of thetarget chapter 212 starts is 10 minutes and, if the specified time is 10minutes as shown in FIG. 20, the condition of step S113 (FIG. 11) issatisfied, but, if the specified time is 30 minutes as shown in FIG. 21,the condition of step S113 is not satisfied.

Further, the specified time can also be set in units of one day, oneweek, one month, or one year (namely, in different units from units ofsecond, minute, or hour), in addition to any desired time describedabove.

It should be noted that, if the specified time is set in any of theseunits, the division in unit is the boundary between dates. This boundarymay be fixed simply to 0:00 midnight. However, along with the change inlife style, some events frequently extend over 0:00 midnight andcontinue until the next day. In that case, if the unit division issimply set at 0:00, such event is divided inappropriate section, so thata problem of the discontinuation of an event takes place. Therefore, inthis example, the boundary between dates can be set to any point oftime. Namely, not only the date boundary set by the designer beforehandbut also that set by the user as desired can be used.

When the specified time is set in units of date (one day), the startchapter (for example, a start chapter 231 of the two chapters of 7/1,chapter 231 and chapter 232) of the chapters of the same day isregistered in a chapter menu 241. Namely, the start chapter 231 of 7/1,a start chapter 233 of 7/2, a start chapter 234 of 7/3, and a startchapter 235 of 7/4 are registered in the chapter menu 241.

It should be noted that, in this example, as shown with the chapter 234,if the end time of the chapter that is a continuous recording (namely, acontinuous recording between the recording start time and the recordingend time) is beyond the above-mentioned boundary of date, that chapteris not divided over the date boundary and therefore the data subsequentto the date boundary is not handled as the start chapter of the nextday, so that such chapter is handled as one whole chapter. Namely, thenext chapter (in this case, the chapter 235) is handled as the startchapter of the next day and registered in the chapter menu.

As described above, the menu creation block 107 (FIG. 4) can executes“chapter menu registration processing”, thereby attaining the followingadvantages.

Conventionally, it is also practicable for the user to create thechapter menu of the DVD menus by use of the PC when recording the videodata (namely, the data recorded to the digital video tape 13) taken bythe DV 12 to a DVD.

However, in related-art techniques, the PC registers the chaptersmanually specified by the user into the chapter menu or all chaptersforming the captured video data into the chapter menu. This related-artconfiguration presents problems of increasing the time for creating thechapter menu and the registration of unnecessary chapters into the DVDmenu.

For example, if the recording section between the recording start pointand the recording end point provides a chapter as with the presentembodiment, one piece of video data (namely, the video data to berecorded to the DVD 14) is formed by vast many chapters; therefore, ifthese chapters are all registered in the chapter menu, problems occursthat it takes long to create the chapter menu and it is difficult forthe user to search the chapter menu for desired chapters.

A method is also known in which continuous video data is simply dividedby a predetermined time interval to create a chapter. With this method,however, the chapters registered in the chapter menu are not alwayscreated for each event, so that it is difficult to automatically createa chapter menu desired by the user.

In contrast, the PC 11 (FIGS. 1 and 2) according to the inventionprovides “chapter registration processing” as one of the functions ofthe data acquisition/DVD write block 91 (FIG. 4). Namely, this functionallows the automatic creation of a chapter menu on the basis ofrecording start information (namely, a recording start point) withoutrequiring special operations by the user (namely, the user may onlyconnect the DV 12 to the PC 11 and turn on the power to the DV 12),thereby freeing the user from complicated operations and automaticallycreating a chapter menu.

In other words, the PC 11 is an information processing apparatus forcreating, if predetermined content data is divided into a plurality ofsections, a table contents indicative of a recording sequence of thesections of content data with a predetermined section among theplurality of sections used as an item, the information processingapparatus comprising table-of-contents creation means for sequentiallysetting each of the plurality of sections to a target section in theorder of recording of the plurality of sections and, if a time intervalbetween a recording start time of a section registered immediatelybefore as an item of the table of contents and a recording start time ofthe target section set this time is greater than a predeterminedspecified time, repeating processing of registering target sections asitems of the table of contents, thereby creating the table of contents.

Thus, a chapter menu is created on the basis of the video taking starttime between chapters, so that the chapter menu can be created for eachof internals of predetermined video taking events. Especially, if eachof the games constituting an athletic festival for example provides onevideo taking event, if each of the primary and secondary parties of awedding ceremony for example provides one video taking event, or if eachof the first and second halves of a succor game provides one videotaking event, the advantage of this “chapter registration processing” inthis example is conspicuous.

Consequently, by executing “chapter menu registration processing”, themenu creation block 107 can solve the above-mentioned problems involvedin the chapter menu creation based on related-art techniques.

The present invention has been described by use of informationprocessing system 1 shown in FIG. 1 as one example; however, variousother embodiments are practicable.

For example, the method of the connection between the PC 11 and the DV12 is not limited to the method described herein as long as theabove-mentioned sequence of processing operations can be supported.

To be more specific, as shown in FIG. 23 for example, a cradle 301 maybe connected to the PC 11; the DV 12 is mounted on this cradle 301 to beconnected to the PC 11 through the cradle 301. Namely, in this case,cradle 301 is used in place of the cable 15 (FIG. 1); when the DV 12 ismounted on the cradle 301, the i.LINK 45 (FIG. 2) of the PC 11 and thei.LINK 78 (FIG. 3) of the DV 12 are interconnected.

Alternatively, as shown in FIG. 24, the PC 11 and the DV 12 may beinterconnected via a network 311 including the Internet.

The information processing apparatus to which the present invention isapplied is not limited to the PC; for example, the informationprocessing apparatus may be embodied as an optical drive device 321 asshown in FIG. 25.

The optical drive device 321 may only have a configuration thatbasically has substantially the same function as the DVD-R/RW drive 36shown in FIG. 2. It should be noted however that, in this case, theoptical drive device 321 must have a software program for executing theabove-mentioned sequence of processing operations (namely, the dataacquisition/DVD write block 91 (FIG. 4)), a memory for storing therecorded data of the digital video tape 13 supplied from the DV 12 (forexample, a hard disk drive like the HDD 34 shown in FIG. 2), a CPU forexecuting this program (for example, a CPU like the CPU 21 shown in FIG.2), a memory for temporarily storing parameters and data necessary forexecuting this program (for example, a RAM), and the i.LINK fortransmitting and receiving data with the DV 12.

Alternatively, the software program for executing the above-mentionedsequence of processing operations (namely, the data acquisition/DVDwrite block 91 (FIG. 4)) may be installed on the DV 12 itself.

When the above-mentioned sequence of processing operations is executedby software, the programs constituting the software are installed in acomputer which is built in dedicated hardware equipment or installed,from a recording media, into a general-purpose personal computer forexample in which various programs may be installed for the execution ofvarious functions.

As shown in FIG. 2, the recording medium is constituted by not only theremovable recording medium 49 (a package media) made up of the magneticdisk (including flexible disks), the optical disk (including CD-ROM(Compact Disk Read Only Memory) and DVD (Digital Versatile Disk)), themagneto-optical disk (including MD (Mini-Disc) (trademark)), or thesemiconductor memory which is distributed separately from the personalcomputer itself, but also the ROM or a hard disk drive including the HDD34 which stores programs and is provided to users as incorporated in thepersonal computer itself.

The above-mentioned sequence of processing operations may be executed bysoftware as well as hardware. In the hardware approach, the informationprocessing apparatus has the hardware corresponding to the dataacquisition/DVD write block 91 as shown in FIG. 4 for example.

It should be noted herein that the steps for describing each programrecorded in recording media include not only the processing operationswhich are sequentially executed in a time-dependent manner but also theprocessing operations which are executed concurrently or discretely.

In the above-mentioned examples, the description is made by use of theformat of the DV 12 for example and therefore term “frame” is used; itis also practicable to use term “field” instead. Herein, these terms“frame” and “field” are also referred to as access units.

It should also be noted that term “system” as used herein denotes anentire apparatus configured by a plurality of component units.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY

As described and according to the invention, the data recorded to adigital video tape can be recorded to a DVD. Especially, only connectinga DV loaded with a digital video tape to a PC and turning on the powerto the DV by the user (and, as required, once clicking the PC's mousebutton for directing the execution of processing) can execute a sequenceof processing operations of capturing the data recorded to the digitalvideo tape from the DV into the PC, converting DV format to DVD format,and recording the converted data to a DVD. In other words, a sequence ofprocessing operations of recording video data recorded to a firstrecording medium in a first format to a second recording medium in asecond format without user's manual intervention.

1. An information processing apparatus, comprising: acquisition means for acquiring predetermined content data including a plurality of access units which are reproduced by a predetermined reproduction device, wherein said reproduction device is a digital video tape recorder and said content data is recorded to a digital video tape loaded on said digital video tape recorder; acquisition stop control means for monitoring, among time information included in each of said plurality of access units reproduced by said reproduction device, a recording time at which each of said plurality of access units was recorded and, when said recording time of a first access unit, from said plurality of access units, currently being monitored is earlier than said recording time of a second access unit monitored temporally before said first access unit, stopping the acquisition of said content data; reproduction control means for controlling, in response to a request from said acquisition means, any of operations of reproduction, fast feeding, and rewinding said digital video tape loaded on said digital video tape recorder and an operation of stopping any of said operations, wherein said acquisition means, when starting an acquisition process of said content data; requests said reproduction control means to reproduce said digital video tape loaded on said digital video tape recorder and, when the acquisition process of said content data is stopped by said acquisition stop control means, requests said reproduction control means to stop the requested reproduction.
 2. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein, when acquiring said content data from a start position of said digital video tape loaded on said digital video tape recorder, said acquisition means requests, before starting acquisition of said content data, said reproduction control means to rewind said digital video tape loaded on said digital video tape recorder to said start position and, when said digital video tape is found rewound to said start position by said reproduction control means, starts acquiring said content data.
 3. A computer readable medium storing a computer program that causes a computer to execute the steps of: acquiring predetermined content data including a plurality of access units which are reproduced by a predetermined reproduction device, wherein said reproduction device is a digital video tape recorder and said content data is recorded to a digital video tape loaded on said digital video tape recorder; monitoring, among time information included in each of said plurality of access units reproduced by said predetermined reproduction device, a recording time at which each of said plurality of access units was recorded, and stopping an acquiring process of said content data acquired in said acquiring step, when said recording time of a first access unit, from said plurality of access units currently being monitored, is earlier than said recording time of a second access unit monitored temporally before said first access unit; controlling, in response to a request, any of operations of reproduction, fast feeding, and rewinding said digital video tape loaded on said digital video tape recorder and an operation of stopping any of said operations, wherein the acquiring step includes, when starting an acquisition process of said content data, requesting reproduction of said digital video tape loaded on said digital video tape recorder and, when the acquisition process of said content data is stopped, requesting the requested reproduction to stop.
 4. An information processing apparatus, comprising: acquisition means for acquiring predetermined content data reproduced by a predetermined reproduction device, wherein said reproduction device is a digital video tape recorder and said content data is recorded to a digital video tape loaded on said digital video tape recorder; acquisition stop control means for monitoring the reproduction content by said reproduction device and, when said content data has an unrecorded area extending for more than a predetermined period of time, stopping the acquisition process of said content data by said acquisition means; reproduction control means for controlling, in response to a request from said acquisition means, any of operations of reproduction, fast feeding, and rewinding said digital video tape loaded on said digital video tape recorder and an operation of stopping any of said operations, wherein said acquisition means, when starting an acquisition process of said content data, requests said reproduction control means to reproduce said digital video tape loaded on said digital video tape recorder and, when the acquisition process of said content data is stopped by said acquisition stop control means, requests said reproduction control means to stop the requested reproduction.
 5. A computer readable medium storing a computer program that causes a computer to execute the steps of: acquiring predetermined content data reproduced by a predetermined reproduction device, wherein said reproduction device is a digital video tape recorder and said content data is recorded to a digital video tape loaded on said digital video tape recorder; monitoring the reproduction content by said reproduction device and, when said content data has an unrecorded area extending for more than a predetermined period of time, stopping the acquisition process of said content data in said acquisition step; controlling, in response to a request, any of operations of reproduction, fast feeding, and rewinding said digital video tape loaded on said digital video tape recorder and an operation of stopping any of said operations, wherein the acquiring step includes, when starting an acquisition process of said content data, requesting reproduction of said digital video tape loaded on said digital video tape recorder and, when the acquisition process of said content data is stopped, requesting said requested reproduction to stop.
 6. An information processing apparatus for recording information from a first recording medium in a first format to a second recording medium in a second format, comprising: an acquisition unit configured to acquire predetermined content data including a plurality of access units that are reproduced by a predetermined reproduction device, wherein said predetermined content data is video data recorded on the first recording medium in the first format; an acquisition stop control unit configured to monitor, among time information included in each of said plurality of access units reproduced by said reproduction device, a recording time at which each of said plurality of access units was recorded and, when said recording time of a first access unit, from said plurality of access units, currently being monitored is earlier than said recording time of a second access unit monitored temporally before said first access unit, to stop the acquisition of said content data; and a reproduction control unit configured to control, in response to a request from said acquisition unit, any of operations of reproduction, fast feeding, and rewinding said first recording medium, and an operation of stopping any of said operations, wherein the acquisition unit, when starting an acquisition process of said content data, is configured to request said reproduction control unit to reproduce said first recording medium and, when the acquisition process of said content data is stopped by said acquisition stop control unit, to request said reproduction control unit to stop the requested reproduction. 